This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
Whole wheat sourdough banana bread is a one-bowl, dairy-free loaf made with olive oil and discard, and the same batter makes 18 muffins if you would rather have breakfast in hand than on a plate.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Kitchen
- Ingredients for whole wheat sourdough banana bread
- How to make whole wheat sourdough banana bread
- Tips for the best whole wheat sourdough banana bread
- Variations
- Serving whole wheat sourdough banana bread
- Whole wheat sourdough banana bread FAQs
- More sourdough recipes
- Whole Wheat Sourdough Banana Bread Recipe
- More breakfast recipes
There is no creaming and no mixer here. You mash the bananas right in the bowl you will mix in, stir the rest of the wet ingredients in after them, whisk the dry ingredients separately, and combine. Olive oil does the work butter does in a conventional banana bread, which makes this loaf dairy-free without any substitution gymnastics.
Whole wheat flour is the other change, and it is not a token amount. All 2 cups are whole grain, which gives the loaf a nuttier, less sweet-tasting crumb and considerably more fiber than a white flour banana bread. The sourdough discard helps here in a way it does not in a white loaf: its acidity softens the bran, so the crumb comes out tender rather than coarse.
If you would rather have the classic butter-and-white-flour version, I have that too as sourdough banana bread. This one is the everyday, throw-it-together, put-it-in-a-lunchbox loaf. For everything else the discard jar can do, see my collection of 100+ sourdough recipes.
Notes from My Kitchen
This is the version I make on a weekday, and the muffins are the reason. One batch fills two muffin tins, they bake in half an hour instead of over an hour, and they go straight into lunchboxes for the rest of the week. The loaf is prettier, and the muffins are more useful, and I make the muffins about four times as often.
The mistake I made early on was treating whole wheat as a straight swap and expecting the same loaf in brown. It is not. Whole wheat drinks up more liquid and the bran cuts through gluten strands, so the crumb is naturally denser and it browns faster because of the bran and the sugar together. Once I stopped comparing it to a white flour loaf and started judging it on its own terms, I liked it more than the original.
Ingredients for whole wheat sourdough banana bread
Eleven ingredients, no dairy, and nothing that needs to come to room temperature first. You will need either a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan or two 12-cup muffin tins, greased or lined. Exact amounts are in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Bananas: Heavily speckled to fully black, and measured rather than counted. This recipe uses nearly twice as much banana as flour by weight, so the amount matters more here than in almost any other quick bread.
- Whole wheat flour: All of it, not a partial substitution. Regular whole wheat gives the nuttiest, most assertive loaf. White whole wheat is milder and lighter in color while still being 100 percent whole grain, and it is the easier sell to anyone skeptical of brown bread. I use King Arthur traditional whole wheat, or golden wheat flour when I want the milder version.
- Sourdough discard: Unfed, straight from the fridge. Beyond flavor, the acidity genuinely helps a whole grain batter: it softens the bran and tenderizes a crumb that would otherwise be coarse.
- Olive oil: This is what makes the loaf dairy-free, and it also keeps it moist longer than butter does. Use a mild or light olive oil rather than a peppery extra virgin, which will assert itself. Any neutral oil works if you would rather.
- Light brown sugar: The molasses in it stands up to whole wheat in a way white sugar does not, and it keeps the crumb soft.
- Eggs: Two large, for structure. Whole wheat forms weaker gluten than white flour, so the eggs are doing more work here than usual.
- Vanilla extract: A full tablespoon, which is more than most banana breads use. It is deliberate; whole wheat and brown sugar are both assertive, and a teaspoon of vanilla disappears underneath them.
- Cinnamon: A warm background note rather than the headline.
- Baking powder and baking soda: Both, doing different jobs. The soda reacts with the acid from the discard and the bananas, and the powder lifts independently of it. Whole wheat batter is heavy, so it needs both.
- Salt: A full teaspoon, which sounds like a lot and is exactly right against this much banana and sugar.
- Turbinado sugar: Optional, sprinkled over the top before baking. It does not melt in, so it stays as a crunchy, sparkly crust. Worth it on muffins especially.
Measure the banana, do not count it: This is the one thing that will make or break the loaf. At 450 grams of banana against 240 grams of flour, the fruit outweighs the flour nearly two to one, and bananas vary enormously in size. Four bananas from one bunch can be 400 grams and four from another can be 550 grams, which is the difference between a loaf that bakes through and one with a wet band down the center. Mash into a measuring cup or onto a scale and stop at 2 cups or 450 grams. That is roughly 4 to 5 medium bananas. A little short is fine and bakes faster; a lot over is where trouble starts.
Working with whole wheat: Whole wheat flour absorbs more liquid than white flour and keeps absorbing it as the batter sits, so this batter thickens noticeably within a few minutes of mixing. That is normal and not a sign you need to add anything. The bran also browns faster, which is why the loaf wants foil over the top partway through. If you are new to baking with whole grain, the same principles apply to my whole wheat cinnamon rolls.
Discard versus fed starter: Either works with no other changes. Unfed discard is more acidic, which is mildly preferable here because that acidity is what softens the bran. This recipe assumes a 100 percent hydration starter. If you are building one, a whole grain starter suits this loaf especially well; my whole wheat sourdough starter guide covers it, and beginner sourdough loaf bread is the next thing to bake once it is active.
How to make whole wheat sourdough banana bread
Two bowls, a fork, and a spatula. There is no creaming step and no mixer, which is most of why this is the version that gets made on a Tuesday.
Step 1. Heat the oven and prepare the pan first. Set the oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan, or line two 12-cup muffin tins with papers. Do this before you mix, not after. The baking soda starts reacting with the acid in the discard and bananas the moment they meet, and a batter waiting on a cold oven is losing lift.
Step 2. Mash the bananas in your large bowl. Peel them straight into the bowl you are going to mix in and mash with a fork until mostly smooth. A few small lumps are fine and give the finished loaf some texture.
Step 3. Stir in the rest of the wet ingredients. Add the olive oil, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, and eggs to the mashed bananas and stir until evenly combined.
Step 4. Add the sourdough discard. Stir it in briefly. It will not fully incorporate into the banana mixture and it does not need to; the flour step will finish the job.
Step 5. Whisk the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Combine the whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisking them together now means you will not have to overmix later to distribute the leavening.
Step 6. Combine, and stop early. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold with a silicone spatula just until no dry flour remains. Whole wheat batter looks shaggier than white flour batter at the same stage, so resist the urge to keep going. It will also thicken as it sits, which is the bran absorbing liquid and is entirely normal.
Step 7. Fill the pan and top it. Pour the batter into the loaf pan, or divide it between the muffin cups filling each about three quarters full. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the top now if you are using it.
Step 8. Bake. Muffins take 25 to 30 minutes. A loaf takes 60 to 75 minutes, and it wants a loose sheet of foil laid over the top at about the 40 minute mark, because whole wheat bran and brown sugar both darken quickly. A toothpick in the center should come out with a few moist crumbs rather than wet batter, and an instant-read thermometer should show 205°F to 210°F in the middle.
Step 9. Cool before slicing. Give a loaf 10 minutes in the pan, then turn it out onto a wire rack and cool it completely; it tears if you cut it warm. Muffins can come out of the tin after about 5 minutes and are good slightly warm.
Tips for the best whole wheat sourdough banana bread
Make the muffins. Same batter, 30 minutes instead of 75, and no wet-center risk at all because a muffin is shallow enough to bake through every time. If you are making this on a weekday or for a lunchbox, muffins are simply the better form of the recipe.
Foil the loaf at 40 minutes. Whole wheat browns faster than white flour because of the bran, and there is a cup of brown sugar in here as well. A loose foil tent for the back half of the bake is what stands between a deep brown crust and a burnt one.
Use the blackest bananas you have. Whole wheat is a more assertive flour and it will bury the flavor of underripe fruit completely. Speckled is not enough; you want fruit that is half black and smells sweet from across the counter.
Do not let the batter sit. Some discard batters improve with a rest, but this one does not, because the baking soda reacts with the banana and discard acid immediately and that reaction does not restart in the oven. Get it into a hot pan. If you want a discard batter you can mix the night before, my sourdough apple fritter bread is built for it.
Bake to temperature on the loaf. With this much banana, a toothpick that comes out perfectly dry means you have overshot. A few moist crumbs is right, and 205°F on an instant-read thermometer is more reliable than any visual test.
Variations
This batter takes additions easily, and the muffin format makes it simple to split a batch two ways.
- Blueberry: Fold in 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries at the very end. Do not thaw frozen ones first, and add 3 to 5 minutes to the bake.
- Walnut or pecan: Fold in 3/4 cup of toasted chopped nuts. Toasted rather than raw makes a real difference against whole wheat, which is nutty already and will otherwise swallow them.
- Chocolate chip: 3/4 cup of semisweet chips, folded in with the dry ingredients so they do not sink. Semisweet holds its own against whole grain better than milk chocolate.
- White whole wheat: Swap in white whole wheat flour one for one for a lighter color and a milder flavor while staying 100 percent whole grain. This is the version to make if you are feeding whole wheat skeptics.
- Half and half: Use 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup all-purpose for something between this loaf and the classic. Or go all the way and make my sourdough banana bread, which is built around butter and white flour from the start.
- More whole grain sourdough: Sourdough rye hearth bread and sourdough discard crackers both take well to whole grain flours.
Serving whole wheat sourdough banana bread
This is a breakfast and lunchbox bread more than a dessert one. It is less sweet-tasting than a white flour banana bread even though the sugar is comparable, because the whole wheat gives it a savory, nutty backbone. A muffin and a cup of coffee is a genuine breakfast rather than a sugar hit.
Toasted slices are excellent, especially with peanut or almond butter, which suits the whole grain better than plain butter does. It is also good alongside yogurt and fruit, and a warm muffin split with a little honey is hard to argue with. Since the loaf is dairy-free as written, it is a useful thing to have on hand when you are feeding a mixed crowd.
Storage: Wrapped tightly at room temperature, the loaf or muffins keep for 3 to 4 days. Whole wheat holds moisture well, and the olive oil helps further, so this stays soft longer than a butter-based loaf. Skip the refrigerator, which dulls the flavor and firms up the crumb without buying much time.
Freezing: Muffins freeze beautifully and are the main reason to make this batch as muffins. Cool completely, freeze in a single layer, then bag them for up to 3 months. One goes into a lunchbox frozen and is thawed by mid-morning. A whole loaf freezes just as well, wrapped whole or in slices.
For more ways through the discard jar, try baked sourdough donuts or sourdough chocolate chip cookies. When you are ready to bake a proper loaf of sourdough, soft sourdough bread is the gentlest starting point.
Moist and delicious. We eat banana bread regularly, and this is definitely my favorite so far.
Whole wheat sourdough banana bread FAQs
Yes, and the recipe is written for both. One batch makes about 18 muffins. Fill lined muffin cups about three quarters full and bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins are the more reliable format, since they are shallow enough to bake through without any risk of a wet center.
Yes, as written. Olive oil replaces the butter, and there is no milk or buttermilk in the batter. The only animal product is the eggs. That makes it a useful recipe when you are baking for a mixed crowd, and nothing needs substituting to get there.
Yes, swap it one for one. White whole wheat is milled from a lighter variety of wheat, so it is paler and milder while still being 100 percent whole grain. It is the easier version to serve to anyone who thinks they dislike whole wheat baking. Regular whole wheat gives a nuttier, more assertive loaf.
Some density is correct here, since whole wheat forms weaker gluten than white flour and this batter carries nearly twice as much banana as flour. Genuine heaviness usually comes from overmixing after the flour goes in, from tired baking powder, or from too much banana. Measure the mashed fruit to 2 cups rather than counting bananas, and stop stirring while the batter still looks shaggy.
Three things. This one uses 100 percent whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, olive oil instead of butter, which makes it dairy free, and it is mixed in one bowl with no creaming step. The classic version is richer and more cake-like; this one is nuttier, less sweet-tasting, and doubles as 18 muffins.
More sourdough recipes
If you tried this Whole Wheat Sourdough Banana Bread, or any other recipe on Adamant Kitchen, leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know what you think in the 📝 comments below!
And make sure you stay in touch with me by following on social media!
Whole Wheat Sourdough Banana Bread
Ingredients
- ½ cup sourdough discard, unfed
- 2 cups banana, mashed, one banana is about 1/2 cup, but measure, don't guess
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan, or line two 12-cup muffin tins with papers.
- Peel the ripe bananas into a large mixing bowl and mash them with a fork until mostly smooth.
- Add the olive oil, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, and eggs to the bananas. Stir until evenly combined.
- Add the sourdough discard and stir briefly. It will not fully incorporate, and that is fine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold just until no dry flour remains. The batter will look shaggy and will thicken as it sits. Do not overmix.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan, or divide between muffin cups filling each about three quarters full. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the top if using.
- Bake muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Bake a loaf for 60 to 75 minutes, laying a loose sheet of foil over the top at about 40 minutes to stop it over-browning. A toothpick in the center should come out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter, and an instant-read thermometer should read 205F to 210F.
- Cool a loaf in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely before slicing. Muffins can come out of the tin after 5 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More breakfast recipes
Find the perfect recipe
Searching for something else? Enter keywords to find the perfect recipe!
Hi. Oddly, the recipe doesn’t say when to add starter. It seemed obvious to add to wet but may be confusing.
Thanks for the recipe.
Keep them coming.
Bill
That was confusing indeed. I just went in and corrected the recipe. Thanks Bill!
Moist and delicious. I was a little short on mashed banana (about 350 g is all I had) and this recipe was still great. I made one loaf, and it probably took 45 minutes or more, but I didn’t keep track well. I meant to add blueberries but forgot. Even still, for a straightforward banana bread, this gets high praise from me. We eat banana bread regularly and this is definitely my favorite so far.
Wonderful, so glad you liked it!