Breakfast Banana Bread

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This nourishing banana bread makes a delicious and wholesome breakfast. Packed with nutrient-rich ingredients, it is more satisfying than many traditional recipes, helping to keep you feeling full throughout the morning. Olive oil, pecans, mixed seeds, oats, and raisins add fibre, protein, and healthy fats, while natural sweetness comes from ripe bananas, honey, and raisins, rather than refined sugar. The result is a moist, flavourful loaf that’s both nutritious and satisfying. It is particularly rich in:

• Vitamin E from the pecans, seeds and olive oil
• Magnesium from the oats, pecans, seeds and whole grain flour
• Potassium from the increased amount of banana
• Omega fats from seeds, pecans and olive oil
• Antioxidants from raisins, bananas, pecans and seeds

Is this recipe calorie heavy?

The whole loaf contains approximately 2,450 calories. This is higher than a classic banana bread due to the inclusion of these energy-dense and nutrient-rich ingredients. However, if you are counting calories, you can reduce the total significantly by:

• reducing the pecans to 50g.
• halving the raisins.
• using 25g honey instead of 50g.
• omitting the banana on top of the loaf.

These adjustments could reduce the loaf by roughly 350–500 calories while still maintaining its delicious flavour and nutritional benefits.

What is the best way to serve this Banana Bread?

Whilst you can serve a slice with a cup of tea at any time of day, it is ideal for a quick and nutritious, filling breakfast. I like it with natural or Greek yoghurt and fresh berries. It is best eaten on the day it is made, or the day after, but if you have leftovers, it toasts beautifully and is especially good with butter or peanut butter.

Where is this recipe from?

This Breakfast Banana Bread recipe is a zhuzhed up version of my Banana Muffins/ Banana Bread – Core Recipe. This core recipe is buttery, light, fluffy and also full of banana flavour. You can make it as a loaf or as individual muffins and also include lots of additional flavours and add-ins to suit you flavour palate.

Breakfast Banana Bread

Please see the printable Recipe Card below for the exact, yet condensed, quantities and instructions.

Collect all the ingredients together:

Wet ingredients –

• olive oil, mild flavoured
• peeled, very ripe banana flesh, roughly 2 bananas. (A medium unpeeled banana will weigh roughly 120g – 125g per banana.) I used 2 medium bananas for mine and the flesh only weighed 180g.
• unsweetened Greek or natural/plain yoghurt
• egg, medium size
• vanilla extract
• runny honey or use maple syrup

Dry Ingredients:

• porridge oats, ground into flour consistency. Do not use quick cook porridge oats.
• plain/all-purpose flour
• baking powder  
• bicarbonate of soda
• fine salt

Add-ins –

• pecans or use walnuts
• raisins, or use sultanas
• mixed seeds. I use pumpkins, sunflower and sesame

Topping –

• banana – ideally use a banana which is not as ripe as the ones you use for the cake batter. (See photographs below.)

How to make this wonderful banana bread:

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7 (fan 200°C)
2. Blitz the oats in a food processor until they resemble a flour like consistency. Remove and set aside.
3. Add all the wet ingredients to the food processor and blitz to mix.
4. Return the blended oats and remaining dry ingredients to the processor and pulse until nearly mixed in.
5. Add the pecans and pulse to break them down a little. Alternatively chop them by hand and add them with the raisins and seeds.
6. Remove the bowl from the base and take out the blade. Use a spatula to fold in the raisins and seeds.
7. Tip into a lined 900g/2lb loaf tin and level the surface. Slice the remaining banana lengthways and place, cut side up, on the top of the cake.
8. Bake in the centre of the oven for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn the oven down to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 (fan 160°C) and cook for a further 35 – 40 minutes. It is cooked when a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven, leave to sit for 5 – 10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
10. Eat warm or at room temperature, on its own or with your choice of accompaniments. 
11. Suggested accompaniments:
    • Salted Maple Whipped Butter
    • Salted Cinnamon and Honey Butter
    • Nut butter
    • Butter
    • Honey/maple syrup
    • Yogurt
    • Fresh berries/fruit
    • Ricotta/mascarpone/cream cheese
    • Jam/conserve

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Use brown, very ripe bananas

One of the key issues when baking banana bread/muffins is using bananas at the correct stage of ‘over-ripe!’. They should be so over-ripe you probably wouldn’t eat them, the skins will be going brown and the banana flesh very soft – they will however be very sweet, full of flavour and perfect for baking.

You can freeze bananas and then cook with them

The good thing is that you can freeze over-ripe bananas if you do not want to use them immediately. Simply remove the skin, chop into 2 cm pieces, pop into a bag and freeze. Defrost before using in baking. 

Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.