“Funfetti” Whole Wheat Banana Bread
This Funfetti Whole Wheat Banana Bread is a healthier twist on classic banana bread, made with whole wheat flour and naturally sweet ripe bananas. It’s simple to stir together and packed with colorful sprinkles, making it a fun, kid-friendly baking recipe.
Kids in the Kitchen:
- Mash! Grab a big bowl and a potato masher or use a plate and a fork…kids love to mash bananas! This can be the only step they help with and that’s ok.
- Measure: To make the baking experience with kids less stressful, pre-measure most or all of the ingredients. If you want your child to practice measuring, you can leave one or two ingredients for them to measure
- Mix: Mixing is a great activity for kids. Make sure to use a really large bowl so you don’t have to worry about ingredients spilling over the side. I like to show kids how to hold the bowl with one hand and gently stir with the spoon or rubber spatula in the other hand. If you have more than one child helping, one child can use two hands to hold the bowl steady, while the other child (or children) takes turns stirring. I also like to use a rubber spatula to make sure you demonstrate how to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and ensure all the flour is incorporated.
- Sprinkles!: Even if they don’t want to help with any other part of the recipe, you may be able to temp a child to add the sprinkles on top of the banana bread then taste a few!
Subs and Tips for making Funfetti Whole Wheat Banana Bread:
- Gluten free: Use a cup-for-cup style gluten-free baking flour in place of the whole wheat flour in this recipe. Let me know in the comments if you give it a try!
- Egg free: I have not tested this recipe using an egg substitute. However, 2 flax “eggs” would probably work well as long as you add some baking time to make sure the loaf cooks through.
- Muffins? You can bake the banana bread batter as muffins and they would turn out great. Just make sure to check the muffins after 12 to 15 minutes to make sure the batter doesn’t over bake.
- Lower added sugar? If you want to lower the amount of added sugar in this loaf, you could replace all or some of the maple syrup with applesauce or additional mashed banana.
- No oil? You can replace some or all of the oil in this recipe with applesauce.
- Sprinkles: You can use any kind of sprinkles you like for this recipe. These Color Kitchen dye-free sprinkles are what I used in the photographs in this post. I also like to ask for a tub of sprinkles at the Whole Foods bakery (they are also dye-free). More sprinkle options are on my Amazon store HERE.
- Baking essentials: For a loaf pan recommendation and my other favorite baking products click HERE.
Funfetti Whole Wheat Banana Bread
Equipment
- 1 standard loaf pan
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups mashed overripe banana about 3 medium bananas
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup neutral oil (avocado, vegetable, melted coconut)
- 1/3 cup maple syrup or brown sugar can reduce to 1/4 cup for less sweet bread
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt (whole milk or 2% works best) regular or Greek-style
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour, regular whole wheat flour, or all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 9-by-5 inch loaf pan (or similar size). I like to add a parchment paper "sling' across the pan so the bread is easy to remove after baking.
- In a large bowl, mix mashed banana, eggs, oil, maple syrup, and yogurt, vanilla, and almond extract, if using, until well combined.
- Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour and mix until almost combined. Add half of the sprinkles then continue to stir until everything is just combined.
- Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Top with the remaining sprinkles.
- Bake the loaf until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.
- Allow the loaf to cool at least 20 to 30 minutes before slicing. Store at room temperature for a day, in the fridge for 5 days, or freeze, well wrapped, for 2 months.
Other Banana Recipes:
Banana Protein Muffins (with lentils)