Blueberry Banana Bread - moist, delicious, easy-to-make, with a beautiful texture and flavor from blueberries. It's a basic banana bread recipe made a little bit more special with the addition of blueberries. Only ⅓ cup of butter is used, the rest of it replaced with Greek yogurt and bananas. You'll love this easy recipe for its utter simplicity. This recipe makes 1 banana loaf.
Two very ripe bananas and one package of blueberries were sitting on my counter, so naturally, I had to make a loaf of banana bread with blueberries. I wanted something different from the banana bread recipe I used a couple of weeks ago, so, in addition to blueberries, I also added Greek yogurt. Well, adding the Greek yogurt was sort of a necessity (as opposed to creativity), since I only had 2 bananas while the recipe called for 3, so I measured that 1 mashed banana equaled ⅓ cup in volume, and that's how much Greek yogurt I added to replace the missing banana.
Blueberries add so much to banana bread! In addition to the berry flavor, blueberries make the banana bread even moister, without letting it lose the texture. Biting a slice of banana bread with blueberries is very much like having a slice of a berry cake: juicy and fruity, but without all the butter. I still can't believe that this moist loaf of blueberry banana bread has only ⅓ cup butter, the rest of butter replaced by Greek yogurt and bananas. I need to make recipes like this more often! In fact, other berries work really well in banana bread recipes, such as in this strawberry blueberry banana bread.
Tips for making the best banana bread
Below are simple yet important tips for making your blueberry banana bread loaf super moist, light and fluffy straight out of the oven:
- Use very ripe bananas. When peeled, ripe bananas are still white inside but very soft and mushy. Mashing such bananas with a fork is very much like stirring the smoothie: effortless! That's when the bananas are at their sweetest!
- Do not overmix the batter. Use only the wooden fork or a wooden spoon to mix the banana bread batter. Why? Overmixing allows the gluten to develop in the banana bread batter which will result in a dense loaf. If you don't over mix you will have a nice tender and soft loaf. It's OK to even have minor clumps in the batter here and there.
- Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper and then pour the banana bread batter. This ensures that the bottom of the bread will not get stuck to the baking pan.
Toppings for banana bread
This blueberry banana bread already tastes so good both warm and cold that you don't really need anything added to it. But if you do wonder what to put on banana bread, here are some simple suggestions:
- A slather of butter. Just add it on top of your warm slice of bread.
- Caramel syrup
- Chocolate syrup
- Dulce de leche (cooked sweetened condensed milk)
- Maple glaze
- Crumbly streusel topping
Related banana bread recipes
All of the below recipes are similar to this blueberry banana bread in the respect that they are more than just basic banana bread recipes, yet the additions are so simple that none of these recipes are time-consuming. All of them are easy and simple as if you were making a loaf of basic banana bread.
Strawberry blueberry banana bread - combine two types of berries for a delicious, moist, and colorful dessert bread.
Banana bread with walnuts - nuts are always a great addition to banana bread.
Pumpkin banana bread with apples - a great recipe to save for the holiday season.
Banana bread muffins - just like the banana bread, but made in a muffin pan. Nice individual portions, perfect for picnics or snack to pack for school/work.
Blueberry Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 bananas ripe, smashed
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup butter , melted
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. This recipe makes 1 banana bread loaf.
- In a large bowl, mix mashed bananas, Greek yogurt and melted butter, using wooden fork or spoon. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix just enough to blend the ingredients; do not over-mix, the lumps will work themselves out.
- Add whole blueberries to the batter and mix them in to distribute evenly through the batter.
- Butter a 4x8 inch loaf pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, butter the parchment paper too. Pour the batter in the pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove the banana bread from pan and slice to serve.
- Note: lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper ensures that the bottom of the bread will not get stuck.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
The recipe was originally published on April 16, 2013, and republished with tips and updates in June 2018
Looks delicious! Can I use olive oil instead of butter?
Rather than using parchment paper and butter, I used coconut oil to grease the pan and it turned out DELICIOUS. Thank you for the amazing recipe.
What is u don't have Greek yoghurt?...Can I replace it with normal yoghurt or something else?
Beautiful. I rarely bake cakes as I am restricted to a very small potable oven. However, I wanted to make something for my husband and I to take to work for morning tea. This is foolproof! For Aussie readers I used Gippsland Dairy Blueberry Yoghurt. Substituted self-raising flour for the plain flour and baking powder and reduced the sugar. This cake is so moist and very tasty. Thank you for sharing Julia
You are very welcome! So glad you found this recipe useful!
tastes really delicious. this time I changed it up a bit. used sour cream instead of greek yogurt and 2 diced apples instead of blueberries. cake is in the oven will see how it turns out. will let you know
Love your substitutions: sour cream and apples! Sounds delicious!
Incredibly moist and delicious! I also reduced the amount of sugar to 1/2 cup since I used vanilla yogurt that had sugar in it. Have also made as muffins, perfect for breakfast, and froze extras for future use. Yum yum!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Good idea to reduce the amount of sugar if you use yogurt with sugar in it.
Can I use silk Greek yogurt
Most and delicious! I used half the amount of sugar because I don't like it too sweet, and it was perfect. Next time I might add a pinch of cinnamon.
So glad you enjoyed it! I am the same way - I don't like my desserts too sweet and often reduce the sugar amounts.
This was moist and delicious! I used about half the sugar because I don't like it too sweet, and it came out great. I think when I make it again I might add a pinch of cinnamon.
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it! I don't like my desserts too sweet either. Adding a pinch of cinnamon is a great idea!
Does this need to be refrigerated?
I don't have any greek yogurt, do you recommend using another banana or 1/3 cup sour cream?
I would use sour cream to replace Greek yogurt.
Really really good
I made the bread without flour. It turned out beautiful and Delicious.
Made this the other day and used chocolate chips instead of blueberries. It turned out perfectly and is now my family’s latest favorite recipe. Thanks!