“Can we put blueberries in the banana bread?” Yes, yes we can.

A low-sugar banana bread recipe featuring fresh blueberries. We’ve made a lot of banana together over the years. Recently, my husband asked if we could add blueberries. The result was delicious.

Just the Recipe | 12 Servings

Ingredients

1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 Cup Turbinado Sugar

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt

2 Eggs, Beaten

1/3 Cup Buttermilk

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

1 Cup Mashed Bananas (about 2 large, very ripe bananas)

1/2 Cup Chopped Pecans or Walnuts (optional)

1/2 Cup Fresh Blueberries

Oven Temp: 325° | 9 x 5 Loaf Pan

Steps

Preheat the oven.
Spray the loaf pan with non-stick spray.
Mix wet ingredients:
- Beat the eggs in a medium-large bowl.
- Add the mashed bananas, oil, and buttermilk.
- Stir gently to combine
Mix dry ingredients:
- Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together.
- Add the sugar, nuts, and blueberries and stir well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 75 - 80 minutes.
- To test for doneness: a knife or cake tester inserted into the center of the loaf should come out clean.

Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Carefully remove to a cooling rack. Enjoy at room temperature or toasted.

Store in a bread container or in the refrigerator. Bread will last 3 days at room temperature in low humidity. This loaf also freezes well for about a month.

Kitchen Acumen Tips:

You can use milk in place of buttermilk in a pinch. Add an extra 1/4 tsp of baking soda when using milk. The textures are a little different but both are delicious.
Make sure the bananas are good and ripe. Their peels should be brown and the fruit should be easy to mash into an even consistency. Mash evenly to avoid holes in the bread.
Coat the nuts and berries well in the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients. This helps them distribute evenly and not sink to the bottom of the pan.
Don’t like nuts? Skip them!
Turbinado is the same as raw sugar. You don’t have to use turbinado sugar, white sugar is fine. I use turbinado in most of my recipes. I like it here since it’s a low sugar recipe and the turbinado sugar imparts more of a caramel flavor than white sugar since it has more molasses in it than refined sugar. Turbinado is less processed than white sugar, if that’s important to you, but it can be much pricier. Especially if you pick up a bag that supports fair trade farming practices. We cut back on processed food and sugar so the price evens out for us over time. Otherwise there’s little difference nutritionally between the two.
Variations*:
- *Lemon Blueberry Banana Bread - add 1 tsp lemon zest to the dry ingredients when you add the blueberries and pecans. Create a simple lemon glaze with 1 cup of confectioners sugar and 2 - 3 TBS fresh lemon juice (start with 2 TBS and add more as needed). The mixture should be thick but pourable. Once the loaf is cooled to room temperature, drizzle the lemon glaze over the top of the loaf and allow to harden for about 15 minutes before serving.
- *Orange Blueberry Banana Bread - same as the Sweet Lemon version but with orange zest in the dry ingredients and orange juice in the glaze. I think walnuts work better than pecans in this version.
- *Dark Chocolate Blueberry Banana Bread - skip the nuts and add 1/3 cup of semi-sweet dark chocolate chips and 1/2 cup blueberries.