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.
Ingredients
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- 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
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Preheat the oven to 350 F. This recipe makes 1 banana bread loaf.
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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.
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Add whole blueberries to the batter and mix them in to distribute evenly through the batter.
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Butter a 4×8 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.
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Note: lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper ensures that the bottom of the bread will not get stuck.