This Banana Pineapple Bread is incredibly moist and is ever so slightly coconut flavored thanks to the coconut oil in the batter. You’ll definitely want seconds of this easy banana bread recipe!
Ultra Moist Banana Pineapple Bread
I’m no stranger to banana bread recipes. In fact, I have 35+ Favorite Banana Bread and Banana Recipes. But this is the first time I’ve made banana bread with coconut oil and it won’t be the last. The results are magical.
This bread makes me think of spring, warmer weather, and of being on a tropical vacation. Like all my banana bread recipes, it comes together with a whisk and just one bowl. No mixer, no creaming ingredients, nothing fussy.
Paradoxically, when baking with coconut oil, it doesn’t impart a blast of in-your-face coconut intensity. I liken it to a vacation-scented flavor rather than licking a bottle of tanning oil. There’s barely a hint of detectable coconut flavor, perfect for those who aren’t fond of coconut.
I think when most people object to coconut, it’s shredded or flaked coconut that they’re thinking of. Those forms have very distinct and powerful flavors and scents. And there’s that stringy texture that’s also a consideration. I love coconut oil, but even I have to be in the right mood for shredded coconut.
Courtesy of the coconut oil, buttermilk, and bananas, this bread is springy-soft and bouncy. It’s like a trampoline I wish I could jump on because it’s so cushioney, soft, tender, and ridiculously moist.
The pineapple and its natural juices also tenderize the bread. I used frozen pineapple chunks from Trader Joe’s, and stirred them in straight from the freezer.
The sweetness from the bananas and pineapple, coupled with the coconut oil, made these loaves scrumptiously good. This is pineapple-banana bread, rather than banana-pineapple, and the coconut oil is hardly noticeable. It’s in the background and adds flavor you can’t quite put your finger on, but you’ll want more of it.
The pinch of nutmeg I added was a departure from my usual cinnamon-fiending ways. Nutmeg adds a nuttiness, warmth, and fullness of flavor. It’s almost like using browned butter and adds a homey quality. It’s less intense than cinnamon, and a perfect compliment for the pineapple.
Feel free to freeze the second loaf for a rainy day. Or give it away to a friend. Or just hog it. They’re pretty small loaves and go fast.
I made this bread the night before I started my 3-day juice cleanse and it was one of the first things I ate after the cleanse. Knowing I had it waiting for me on the other side of those three days was wonderful. Four days after I made it, it was still totally fresh, soft, and it’s perfect as is!
How to Make Banana Pineapple Bread
In a large bowl, combine eggs, melted coconut oil, buttermilk, sugars, and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt, and stir to incorporate.
Stir in bananas and frozen pineapple, then pour batter into greased 8×4-inch loaf pans. Bake until the top of the banana pineapple bread is golden and set.
This banana bread with coconut oil lasts for days at room temperature, but you can also freeze the slices and reheat them later when a banana bread craving hits! You can make a homemade strawberry butter to go on top, or enjoy plain. However you eat this banana bread, you’re sure to love it!
Tips for the Best Banana Pineapple Bread
I’m always in the mood for coconut oil because of the moistness, softness, and tenderness it lends to baked goods. If you absolutely don’t want to bake with coconut oil, you can use melted or browned butter, canola or vegetable oil. I’ve done them all, but coconut oil is my new favorite.
If desired, you could swap out the frozen pineapple for mango, peaches, nectarines, strawberries or your favorite frozen or seasonal fruit. No matter what type of fruit you use in this banana bread recipe, my top tip when baking with frozen fruit is to stir it in frozen rather than first thawing them. Frozen fruit is less mushy and fragile, and it runs less all over the batter.
This banana pineapple bread recipe makes two smaller 8-by-4-inch loaves, and I’d imagine you could bake it as muffins or some muffins plus a little loaf. I find loaves to be faster and easier; filling one big pan versus twelve muffin wells, but do what you like.
Whatever you do, don’t try to bake it as one big 9-by-5 loaf because I fear it would either overflow or the center wouldn’t cook through before the tops and sides became too browned.
More Banana Bread Recipes:
- Six-Banana Banana Bread — Not sure what to do with overripe bananas you have on hand? Make this Six-Banana Banana Bread! This is the best banana bread recipe EVER — it’s so moist and flavorful!
- Brown Sugar Blueberry Banana Bread — Super moist blueberry banana bread made with Greek yogurt and dark brown sugar. Smear some homemade blueberry butter onto a slice of this blueberry brown sugar banana bread and prepare to fall in love!
- Cream Cheese-Filled Banana Bread — Banana bread that’s like having cheesecake baked in! Soft, fluffy, easy and tastes ahhhh-mazing!
- Zucchini Banana Bread — This Zucchini Banana Bread is so soft, tender, uber-moist, dense enough to be satisfying, but still light!
- Carrot Banana Bread — This super moist, springy, tender carrot banana bread is bread that reminds me of cake and I’m not complaining. It’s an easy, no mixer recipe that goes from bowl to oven in minutes.
Enjoy!
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Coconut Oil Banana Pineapple Bread
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted*
- ⅓ cup buttermilk**
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg, optional but recommended
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 to 1 ¼ cups mashed ripe bananas, 2 large or 3 small ripe bananas
- 1 cup pineapple, diced (I used frozen)***
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans with floured cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the eggs, coconut oil, buttermilk, sugars, vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, optional salt, and stir to just incorporate; don’t overmix because the gluten will overdevelop and bread will be tougher.
- Stir in bananas. Stir in pineapple (if using frozen, just add it frozen, no need to thaw it first. If using fresh or canned, make sure it’s well-drained or it could water-down the batter).
- Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for about 45 minutes, or until top is golden and set, a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean (banana bread is gooey and it may not come out perfectly clean). If bread is browning too fast on the top, you may wish to lower your oven temperature to 325F in last 15 minutes of cooking, or tent the pan with foil; although I don’t suspect this will be an issue.
- Allow bread to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Optionally serve with Browned Butter Vanilla Glaze or Make Pineapple Butter rather than Strawberry Butter.
- Bread will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container or large Ziplock at room temperature (I wrap my fully cooled bread in Clingwrap, then I place it in a gallon-sized Ziplock). Second loaf may be frozen for up to 3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Even More Banana Recipes:
Vegan Coconut Oil Banana Muffins — These Vegan Banana Muffins are extra fluffy and moist thanks to the combination of coconut oil and ripe bananas in the batter. This is a quick and easy muffin recipe you’re bound to love!
Fudgy Banana Bars with Vanilla Bean Browned Butter Glaze — Fudgy is the only word that describes the bars. They’re the banana equivalent of moist, fudgy brownies with zero traces of cakiness.
Six-Banana Banana Chocolate Chip Cake — Yes, six bananas in one cake means it’s super SOFT, moist, and has robust banana flavor with chocolate chips in EVERY bite!
great
How can we make buttermilk if we do not have any? Thank you.
You can Google this info, there’s a variety of ways to do it.
It was such a moist delicious banana pineapple bread😋 ! It’s very refreshing
It was such a moist delicious banana pineapple bread😋 ! It’s very refreshing
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I had this recipe pinned for a long time, and finally made it last night and I am so glad I did. My son loved it, and I will make it again for sure. I’ve never used coconut oil in my baking before, and found that it resulted in a very moist and tasty final product but no strong flavor of coconut.
Thanks for pinning, glad you loved it, and your findings are exactly mine! “…resulted in a very moist and tasty final product but no strong flavor of coconut.” <--- Totally agree!
Do you think it would work if I made this into an upside down cake? Left the recipe as is, but put the topping mix in first?
Just make this cake! One of my faves! https://www.averiecooks.com/the-best-pineapple-upside-down-cake/
This is definitely the best recipe for banana bread anywhere–I always get raves about it….there is never any left to freeze although I always make 2 loaves, I see adults scrape off the crumbs to eat–just like a kid–its wonderful confirmation that this is a crowd pleaser for sure.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it’s a tried and true favorite! I love the crumb scraping story :)
I made the batter for the Pineapple Coconut Oil Banana Loaves and then decided to make it into muffins instead. The results are incredible, subtle taste of banana and pineapple and very moist to boot. Bake at 350 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes until slightly browned around edges, let cool and then enjoy! I also have rectangular mini loaf pans and made an extra three of these with the extra batter from the dozen muffins.
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you as muffins and a few mini loaves!
I have been drooling over recipe after recipe here on your site. Your descriptions and photos are so tempting. I made your Peach Mango Coconut Oil Banana Bread last week and it was wonderful! (I swapped out mangos for blueberries and added cinnamon (because it’s autumn!) it was great.) I have a quick question: I have some sliced pineapple in my fridge that is starting to get a little old (it’s not quite bad yet) so I was thinking to cook it into your Pineapple Banana Bread recipe above. Do you think the fact that my fruit has been in my fridge a little on the long side will negatively affect the final bread outcome? And do you have any advice for when cooking with fresh pineapple instead of frozen? Thanks!
Glad to hear you’re enjoying all my recipes and the bread (with swaps) you made sounds great!
Do you think the fact that my fruit has been in my fridge a little on the long side will negatively affect the final bread outcome? = No I don’t.
Advice…if it’s very ripe it’s probably very juicy so you may need to increase the flour and/or it may take longer to cook through so extend baking time, possibly. Tent pan with a sheet of foil about 2/3rd’s of the way into cooking to avoid an overly browned top if you think that could become an issue. Enjoy!
Hi Averie,
I found this amazing recipe via Pinterest and had to give it a try. After purchasing coconut oil, I didn’t know what I could do with it so I thought banana bread would be great to try with.
I followed the recipe and divided everything in half since I was only making 1 loaf of bread. Unfortunately mine came out to be very mushy, I have been putting it back in the oven several times after adding 10 min at a time..
I am willing to try this recipe again but thought I would ask your opinion on what I am doing wrong :( any tips?
If it’s mushy, more than likely, it just needs to bake longer. And by taking it in and out, in and out, the internal temp isnt getting hot enough to really cook it through so just cook it like you’d cook any other loaf of banana bread, only this time you used coc oil rather than another oil or butter.
That said, you may have had very juicy or ripe bananas, and maybe you could add another 1/4 c flour next time. Go by how the batter looks when you’re mixing it up. If it’s really loose, add a touch more flour; and then just bake like you’d bake any other banana bread. Enjoy!