A few weeks after my 11th birthday, my family moved across town to an older yet substantially larger house. Built in 1955 with wooden floors and ceilings throughout, my dad immediately fell in love with its character. He started woodworking as a hobby as a teenager, and he still creates beautiful wooden bowls or plans new furniture projects whenever he has spare time!
Since our previous house sat on a tiny lot with almost no space between our neighbors, Mom truly appreciated the almost full acre of land of that second house, split between the front and back yards. The previous owner had an especially green thumb, so she had planted countless trees and flowers all around the property, including quite a few fruit trees: three lemons, an orange and grapefruit, green apple, fig, avocado, both a regular and wild plum, kumquat, and peach.
At the end of that first month, once we had unpacked most of our belongings from the cardboard moving boxes, the peach tree began to drop its perfectly ripe fruit. Mom researched recipes and bought lots of glass jars, and my brother and I helped her can over half of the peaches from the tree. At the end of the process, we laughed at how much work (and shelf space) it required!
A few years later, the peach tree developed a disease, so we cut it down before it got any worse. Although we missed the fresh, juicy fruit from its branches, we felt slightly relieved that we no longer spent long hours in the hot kitchen sterilizing jars and preserving peaches!
So when I recently decided to make this Healthy Peach Pie Banana Bread, I thought about our old peach tree and how it would’ve been so rewarding to make this with our homegrown fruit. It’s perfectly sweet and tender, with a hint of coziness from my grandma’s infamous peach pie spices, but it contains no butter, refined flour or sugar and only 106 calories!
Perfect for breakfasts… Snacks… Dessert… And just like that, it’s already time to bake another loaf! 😉
To make this healthy banana bread, you’ll start with regular whole wheat flour (or my favorite gluten-free blend, if you prefer!) and a combination of cinnamon and nutmeg. Like I described here, my grandma makes the best peach pie you’ll ever taste… And since those spices are one of her secret tricks, I always include them in my peach baked treats! They add a layer of coziness, just like I previously mentioned, and make everything ten times more irresistible. (Which can be a little dangerous!)
Whereas many traditional banana bread recipes rely on lots of oil and eggs to keep them moist, this guilt-free recipe only requires ½ tablespoon of coconut oil and 2 egg whites! The rest of its tender texture comes from the mashed banana and Greek yogurt. You know how much I ♡ Greek yogurt! It adds the same moisture as extra oil for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your baked goodies a protein boost, too!
In addition to an extremely tender texture, the mashed banana also provides natural sweetness, which means you’ll only need to mix a couple tablespoons of pure maple syrup (like this kind!) into the batter. Make sure you use the ripest, most speckled bananas you can find! Those contain much more natural sweetness than their pure yellow friends. I actually prefer bananas with more brown color than yellow for baking!
To recreate my grandma’s iconic pie flavor, you’ll fold in diced peaches just before spreading the batter into your loaf pan. I always prefer fresh, but canned peaches in 100% juice will also work if you get your cravings when peaches aren’t in season. (That happens to me all the time!)
If only it were possible to reach through the screen and take a bite of that slice! 😉 And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy peach banana bread!
Healthy Peach Pie Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240g) whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tbsp (7g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ¾ cup (200g) mashed banana (about 2 medium – see Notes!)
- 2 tbsp (30mL) pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup (60mL) nonfat milk
- ¾ cup (150g) finely diced peaches
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9x5” baking pan with foil, and lightly coat with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the mashed Greek yogurt, stirring until no large lumps remain. Mix in the mashed banana and maple syrup. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 3 equal parts.) Reserve ½ tablespoon of the diced peaches, and gently fold in the rest.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, and gently press the reserved peaches into the top of the batter. Bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before carefully lifting out the loaf by the foil and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♥ Healthy Honey Peach Muffins
♥ Healthy Peach Pie Protein Overnight Oats
♥ Healthy Peach Pie Oatmeal Cookies
♥ Peach Scones
♥ Healthy Peach Pie Pancakes
♥ Healthy Peach Pie Bran Muffins
♥ Healthy Peach Streusel Coffee Cake
♥ Healthy Small Batch Maple Peach Muffins
♥ Healthy Zucchini Banana Bread
♥ Healthy Blueberry Buttermilk Banana Bread
Oh my goodness this looks amazing!!!
Izzy | http://www.pinchofdelight.com
Thanks Izzy!
Can you used canned peaches?
Yes! I actually covered that in the text of my blog post above the recipe. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this banana bread Sue!
I am about to make this bread and to my surprise there is no need for vanilla creme stevia which I have ripped right out of the box from Amazon like a kid at Christmas…..lol. Seriously, I do not have maple syrup except for the sugar free kind and I am not too fond of that. I do however from my shopping spree have raw wildflower honey, organic agave in the raw, AND organic agave 5 calorie sweetener. Do you see my dilemma? The person I am making this for is watching his sugar however I do not want to compromise the bread over 2 tbsp. Plus I have no clue what any of this tastes like; maybe you do. So if you had these items on hand as substitutions or interchangeable sweeteners, do you have a preferred way of using them, meaning do some work better than others given the type of baking? Sort of how you have come to the conclusion that the stevia is the one that works best for you. Sorry if this seems a little OCD to you, but what I love about baking is the science involved!! You are not only a great blogger but a patient educator.. thanks so much!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Lorraine! That’s really sweet of you to want to make it for someone else. If he’s watching his sugar intake, then use a generous ¼ teaspoon (or up to ½ teaspoon, if he likes things on the sweeter side!) of your brand new vanilla creme stevia + 2 tablespoons of milk to replace the maple syrup. Your honey and agave would be fine to substitute as well (I actually covered that in the Notes section of the recipe already!). 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this banana bread!
I’m getting ready to make this, and am very excited! Then I thought about those remaining blueberries from our garden that are sitting in my refrigerator! I might go ahead and add them and see what happens…I mean what could be more delicious than blueberry peach pie banana bread!?
I absolutely LOVE that idea of combining peaches and blueberries!! That’s one of my favorite fruit combos! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear how your banana bread turns out Mandy!
Could you make this recipe into a peach bread without bananas? How could I prepare this recipe, omitting the bananas, to achieve a similar texture?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Nataly! I have a healthy peach pound cake here that doesn’t use bananas; perhaps that would be better suited to what you’re looking for? 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to try it!
Hi, Can cashew yogurt and flax egg be used for vegan version?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Sydney! Cashew yogurt should be fine to use. I don’t have much experience with flax eggs (I’m not a big fan of flax’s flavor!), but I know that Ener-G will work! I have family members who are allergic to eggs, and Ener-G is my favorite egg replacer. If you haven’t worked with it before, Ener-G is a flavorless, shelf-stable powder that keeps for ages. It works perfectly as an egg replacer in nearly all of my recipes, including this one! 😉
For my recipes, use 1 ½ teaspoons Ener-G + 2 tablespoons warm water for each egg white, and you’ll need an additional ½ tablespoon of stick-style vegan butter or coconut oil for each egg yolk.
If you make this banana bread, I’d love to hear what you think of it!
Thank you! 😊
My pleasure, Sydney!