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If you love banana bread, this Cranberry Banana Bread is the perfect festive twist. Bright, tart cranberries balance the sweetness of ripe bananas for a moist, delicious loaf you can enjoy all season.
Banana Cranberry Bread
If you love banana bread but want something a little brighter for the holidays, this Cranberry Banana Bread is the perfect twist. Ripe bananas keep it naturally sweet and moist, while fresh or frozen cranberries add pops of tartness in every bite. It’s easy to make, freezer-friendly, and lighter than traditional quick breads — the kind of cozy bake that works for breakfast, snacking, or gifting during cranberry season.
Why This Works
I bake banana bread all the time for recipe testing, and I love finding new, lighter twists that still taste amazing. Today it’s snowing—the kind of day I look for any excuse to turn on the oven and fill the house with something warm and cozy. I had ripe bananas on the counter and cranberries left over from yesterday’s apple-cranberry crumble, so I knew exactly what I wanted to make.
- Tart cranberries balance the natural sweetness of ripe bananas.
- Uses pantry staples and comes together in one bowl.
- Freezer-friendly: perfect to bake ahead for the holidays.
- Lighter than traditional banana bread without sacrificing moisture.
Featured Comment
This is an absolute family favorite! I use King Arthur’s GF flour and whole eggs. I make a double batch of muffins which seem to last longer(in my mind)for when all the kids come home😊
What You’ll Need
Here’s the ingredients to make this banana cranberry bread along with variations. See recipe card below for exact measurements.
- Fresh or frozen cranberries – add bright, tart pops of flavor
- Sugar – lightly sweetens the cranberries as they cook
- White whole wheat flour – adds fiber while keeping the loaf tender, all purpose flour can also be used.
- Baking soda – helps the bread rise and stay light
- Salt – balances the sweetness
- Softened butter – gives moisture and a soft crumb. Dairy-free butter can also be used.
- Brown sugar – adds sweetness and a little depth. You can also use brown monk fruit sweetener.
- Egg whites – keep the bread light while adding structure
- Ripe bananas – the natural sweetener that makes banana bread moist
- Vanilla extract – enhances the warm, cozy flavor
- Turbinado sugar – adds a crisp, golden top
How To Make Cranberry Banana Bread
Here’s how to add fresh or frozen cranberries to your banana bread. See recipe card below for printable directions.
- Cook the cranberries: Simmer the cranberries with a little sugar and water until they burst and soften, then set them aside to cool slightly.
- Prep the oven and pan: Heat your oven to 350°F and lightly spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with baking spray.
- Mix the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix the wet ingredients: In a large bowl, cream the softened butter and brown sugar with a mixer. Add the egg whites, mashed bananas, and vanilla, and beat until the mixture is thick and smooth.
- Combine: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low just until combined—don’t overmix.
- Fold in the cranberries: Gently fold the cooked cranberries and any juices into the batter.
- Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, sprinkle the top with a little turbinado sugar, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool: Let the loaf cool in the pan for about 25 minutes, then transfer it to a rack to finish cooling before slicing.
Variations
- Add nuts, like walnuts or pecans.
- Use dried cranberries instead of fresh or frozen.
- Make them in muffin tins, bake 350F about 25 minutes, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Tips for Success
- Use ripe bananas: The riper the bananas, the sweeter and more flavorful the bread will be.
- Don’t overmix: Once you add the dry ingredients, mix just until combined to keep the loaf tender.
- Fold gently: Add the cooked cranberries at the end so they stay distributed without staining the whole batter.
- Line the pan: Spraying the pan and adding a parchment sling makes it easy to lift out after baking.
- Let it cool fully: The texture improves as the loaf cools, so resist slicing too soon.
Storage & Freezing
- Room Temperature: Store cooled slices tightly wrapped or in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerator: Keeps well for up to 1 week.
- Freezer: Wrap the whole loaf or individual slices in plastic wrap, then foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temp or microwave slices straight from frozen.
More Banana Bread Recipes You Will Love
- Pumpkin Banana Bread
- Classic Banana Bread
- Banana Nut Bread
- Sourdough Discard Banana Bread
- Chocolate Oat Flour Banana Bread
Cranberry Banana Bread
This lightened-up Cranberry Banana Bread is moist, bright, and bursting with tart cranberries—an easy, festive bake you can enjoy for breakfast or gifting.
Yield: servings
Serving Size: 1 slice
Ingredients
- 1 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen
- 2 tablespoons sugar, or sweetener of choice
- 2 tablespoons water
- baking spray
- 1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour, or all purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened (or dairy-free butter)
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, not packed (or sweetener of choice)
- 2 large egg whites
- 3 medium ripe bananas, lightly mashed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 tablespoon turbinado sugar
Instructions
- Prep the pan: Preheat your oven to 350F and lightly spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with oil, then line it with parchment for easy removal, if desired.
- Cook the cranberries: In a small saucepan combine the cranberries water and sugar and bring to a boil. Simmer over medium heat until the cranberries burst, about 4 minutes.
- Mix the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.
- Mix the wet ingredients: In a large bowl cream butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.
- Blend: Add flour mixture and blend at low speed until combined, do not over mix.
- Fold in the cranberries: Add the cranberries and pour batter into the prepared loaf pan; sprinkle with turbinado sugar on top.
- Bake in the center rack for about 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool: Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the pan cool at least 25 minutes, bread should be room temperature before slicing.
Last Step:
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Notes
Variations:
- If you want to add nuts, try it with walnuts or pecans.
- Swap fresh cranberries with dried instead and skip the step of cooking them first.
- Make them in muffin tins, bake 350F about 25 minutes, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 slice, Calories: 94 kcal, Carbohydrates: 20 g, Protein: 2 g, Fat: 2 g, Saturated Fat: 1 g, Cholesterol: 4 mg, Sodium: 105 mg, Fiber: 2 g, Sugar: 11 g
So my husband is diabetic how can I change it so he could have some?
Also, would it be OK to use either coconut or almond flour for it?
This is an absolute family favorite! I use King Arthur’s GF flour and whole eggs. I make a double batch of muffins which seem to last longer(in my mind)for when all the kids come home😊
So happy to hear!
Love this recipe as is but I am wondering if I can substitute one whole egg for the 2 egg whites?
Sure
Delicious and easy to make. if the bananas are over-ripe or if using from frozen they can make the cake too heavy. Just ripened bananas work best but I do usually use frozen and they will work too.
This bread is SO good, no one will know that it’s low calorie!! Will make it again.
Great!!!
Excellent recipe. Can be doubled.
It sure can!
Five stars, healthy ingredients
So happy you loved it!
Owning a Bed & Breakfast, I always have plenty of ripe bananas. The bread was wonderful! It was very moist and yummy. I thought it was dense enough to get buy with just throwing in at least one normal egg with yoke. Will try next time. Added a tsp. of cinnamon.
I am so glad!
What SIZE loaf pan is used?
can I substitute gf flour?
what size bread pans are you using?
Made this into muffins, used parchment paper liners, Used greek nonfat yogurt instead of butter, and swerve sugar replacement. As one other reviewer I added some cinnamon, and cardomon. Baked 25 minutes at 350 and they turned out great. Love the cranberries in this. Not hard to do, great use of overripe banana and I seem to always have a bunch of left over whole cranberries in the freezer.
This is now my favorite Banana Bread recipe. I’ve made it 3 times in the last 3 weeks. I use 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 oatmeal flour (I don’t like whole wheat flour) and use 1 large whole egg and a heaping tablespoon of apple sauce. It comes out delicious.
Thank you. I will make it this way. I don’t care for whole wheat flour either.
Fabulous flavor with very little sugar. No one will suspect this is low cal and healthy. Recipe is easy to follow. Minimal ingredients and bursting with flavor. I added chopped walnuts for added texture. A quick bread just needs nuts. Used 1/4 cup chopped. Takes exactly 60 minutes to bake. I spray the pan but also use parchment paper.. highly recommend this recipe. I’ve made it twice within 3 weeks. Great gift to give the hostess of your holiday parties.
Personally I found walnuts too bitter for this bread. Maybe I needed fresher nuts!
Totally agree no one will know it’s healthier!
I swapped out the vanilla for almond extract and baked two small loaves for about 45 min. Delicious! 🤗
Fantastic! I was not sure about banana and cranberry….although I love both separately. This bread turned out great. I used coconut sugar for the brown sugar and coconut oil instead of butter. It baked about 55 minutes. SO good and 2 of us ate over 1/2 the loaf for breakfast! Huge winner recipe! Thank you:o)
Added 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Just delicious.
Made this and absolutely delicious. Next time will add some nuts.
I LOVE THIS RECIPE. I make it more times a year than I can rightly keep track of it! Just made it right now and thought, I had really better write a comment. I’ve been using this recipe for years! Thank you! It’s so good. This is my go-to recipe anytime I want to make bread or muffins. Every time I make this recipe everyone just loves it and asks for the directions so I send them your link.
I’ll change it a bit depending on what I have around the house.
Here are some of the ways I often mess around with this recipe:
– I find just throwing the cranberries right into the batter (especially, right into the flour mixture) works great – don’t cook the cranberries ahead of time! Too lazy? You betcha! :0) But seriously, tastes great anyway.
– I used whole eggs and don’t separate whites and yolks.
– I add cinnamon and cardamom, because I can never get enough.
– Also, I usually add nuts and chocolate chips, because, oh that’s delicious.
– I often just use 1/4 cup sugar because I like them nearly devoid of sugar, hahaha, especially if I add chocolate chips. I did this at my mom’s and she was angry, but she ended up liking them anyway.
– Orange zest is awesome in this recipe.
– I make muffins a lot, only cook for 12-15 minutes @ 350 F, and then I can store a bunch in the freezer for later.
Thank you for the tips! I was wondering g what the muffins timing would be.
My favorite muffin, so far but no matter how many times I checked, it still came out to 4 points on green, not the stated 3 points on the recipe. Not sure if Gina’s recipe has not been updated. Nevertheless the muffins are great!
I made these as muffins rather than a quick loaf, but they turned out great. Super moist.
I only had 2 very ripe bananas but had some cranberry sauce with whole cranberries, so I substituted about the same amount as one banana. would be. Otherwise I followed the exact directions. It came out perfectly. I appreciated the way the directions were written so that there was no guessing.–even down to the utensels. . Very delicious–highly recommend.
This is so good!! Used brown sugar replacement sugar for cooking cranberry as well as in bread and smart balance butter spread. On WW so used whole eggs. Got 12 generous slices for 2 points (blue). Never thought to use cranberry and bananas together but works so well. Great bread and recipe.
Just made this today – so good! I’m on WW so looking for healthy snacks; loved the combo of tart cranberries with the sweet of the banana. Another winning recipe!
Thanks Janet!
I made this today except I made it even “skinnier” because I used a natural no calorie brown sugar substitute. Also, I didn’t have turbinado sugar, so I just baked it as is. It is delicious!
Just made these and got 12 delicious muffins !
Just made this tonight and it’s absolutely delicious!!! Even my 2 year old was all over it. Thank you so much!
Delicious and easy! Feels like I am cheating and eating bad. After it cooled and I cut it in half, it was a little under done in the middle, even though the toothpick came out clean, so I popped the 2 halves back in the oven for 10 mins – perfect. . Only thing is I have no idea how this would be cut into 16 slices- i got 12. Has anyone tried muffins?
If I make these in mini loaf pans how long should I cook it?
Can you use AP flour?
This is one of my favorite breads to make now. I make it gluten free with equal parts trader joes gluten free flour and omit the sugar on top. The result has always been a delicious, moist and not overly sweet bread. My husband LOVES it and I just made mini loaves (cook for 28-0 minutes) for my clients. Delish!
How do I store overnight? I plan to share this for coworkers in the morning.
I love this recipe. Have made it twice. And it’s the type of recipe that can be tweaked depending on what you have in your cabinet or your taste – I used avocado oil once instead of butter or used a bit more flour or two whole eggs.
One question – both times I’ve made it, I found that it sticks to my glass bread loaf pan more than other banana bread or quick bread recipes. (I usually spray it first with canola spray.) I can’t quite figure out why. Any idea?
🙁 Made this, used all white flour and no sugar on top. Flattened out once it cooled and the inside was much more wry than I care to bite into, even though my testing knife came out clean. Disappointing
Could I sub the brown sugar for stevia? I have a huge bag I purchased that said it was great for baking and measures just like sugar.
I just made this.I have to say this is the best banana and cranberry bread I have ever come across of. It is so moist and tasty.The cranberries add a pop of flavor in your mouth. This recipe I am definitely keeping. So glad I came across this.
Thanks Carol!
I just baked this and the whole house smells incredible. I baked it for 50 minutes instead of 60 and it’s a little burnt on the outside. Not a big deal, I’ll just cut off the outsides. Can’t wait to try it tomorrow for breakfast!
I’m allergic to banana so what can I substitute it with?
Canned pumpkin or applesauce would also work. It won’t be banana bread but pumpkin cranberry bread sounds great too!
Is it ok to use whole eggs rather than just the whites?
If I’m making with dried cranberries do I prep them like it says at the beginning of the recipe?
I personally wouldn’t add the sugar since they’re already sweet. But you can add the water and rehydrate them on the stove the same way.
I made muffins and used Craisins instead of cranberries and skipped cooking the cranberries. Also added a pinch of cinnamon. Very yummy! Thanks Gina!
Using frozen cranberries, can this bread be frozen?
Good but the cranberries are VERY tart… No way my kids will eat this. 🙁
Ps I used a whole egg instead of the two whites and used white flour bec I didn't have whole wheat. I didn't have the turbinado sugar either. The bread part is good but I don't know what's up w the cranberries.
Try using Craisins, it worked great!
Great recipe! I'll definitely be making this again!
To substitute the cranberries for chocolate chips, would you keep the amount the same and add 1 cup of chocolate chips?
What would you substitute for the 2 egg whites? We have an egg allergy in our family. Thank you!
hi! I don't have an electric mixer, can I mix it with a whisk or a spoon or will the consistency change?
Thank you 🙂
Have you tried making this gluten free? If so, wondering on suggestion for flour/flour mixtures. Thanks!
wow this was so easy and SO yummy!! i added a bit more cranberries…
will definitely be making again and again! thanks for the great recipe 🙂
Great taste. I used white flour, and added walnuts. Wonderful !
agree, this is definitely a keeper; one question though,
do you suppose Gooseberries could be substituted (saw these at a farmers market, looked interesting, have tried them in yogurt, they're a bit tart)?
This was delicious, and so easy to prepare!
Just made this and it smells delicious Gina! Sounds more complicated than it actually was!
came out perfect. I initially thought ity is not done. So baked it 15 min more. I believe even at the end u see some crumbs. correct me if I am wrong. Very little though.
Thx Gina. Loved this more than banana bread
Tim_A
Thanks for the grate share
You can also try this great stuff.
http://www.quickdinnerathome.com
how can i sub the white whole wheat for either all purpose or whole wheat flour.
You can try subbing half of all purpose and half whole wheat or just use all purpose. I think it would be too dense if you used just regular whole wheat flour
I used regular whole wheat and everyone loved it!
I got 12 muffins from this recipe. I baked them 23 minutes. I used regular white flour and they turned out fine. I also added about 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and nutmeg.
I don't have an electric hand mixer…can i use a food processor or do by hand? what would you recommend?
Can you use regular white flour?
Outstanding……will make this over and over, it was a huge hit.
This is DEFINITELY happening in my kitchen this week!
Hi, Gina. I love cranberry bread. Love the "tartness" of the cranberries! Yummy!
Wow what I nice idea. I love banana bread. I only tried with chocolate so far but will try for sure your cranberry version very soon 🙂
This looks so delicious! I have cranberries and ripe bananas in my freezer right now.
Looks scrumptious! Thanks for sharing this.
xoxo Zoe
http://thatszoe.blogspot.com
I, too, would like to know if you can use dried cranberries????
dried cranberries eg cruising are high in ww points, so if that matters to you stick to raw which have no points.
can you use dried cranberries
Yes they worked great!
Do the cranberries need to be cooked or can they be chopped?
This looks fantastic! I love baking with cranberries!
Gina,
How do I store this? Do you store it on the counter or in the fridge during the week? Let me know!
Oh you think it will last that long?
Gina, Have you heard about "The Chew's" contest for the best chef for Weight Watchers recipes? You would be awesome,please sign up I would love to see you I know you would win.
If I "veganize" this, can I add one flax egg substitute for the egg whites?
I made this yesterday — it turned out perfectly and is delicious! Thank you!
I don't have turbinado sugar. 🙁
You can leave it out!
can you make them in the small loaf pans?
Sure
What is turbinado sugar?
It's natural raw sugar. Has larger granules so you have a sugar crunch on top but you can leave that out if you don't have it.
It's what's in those brown sugar packets at the Starbucks sugar/cream station.
This looks so good and I have bananas just waiting for something delicious! What size loaf pan did you use?
standard 9 x 5 loaf pan
turned out kind of flat in 9" pan would use an 8"pan if I was to make again. did not put sugar on top
Perfect timing! I, too, an in the northeast and am looking forward to a day of baking for gift giving. I need to clear my freezer of all the bananas…at least 20. And, I have been wanting something to make with the cranberries I recently bought. The problem, though, is I am addicted to skinnytaste recipes and really wanted a cranberry bread. THANK YOU, GINA!
Perfect, enjoy!!!
I have this in the oven now. I was able to get 16 muffins out of the recipe. Can't wait to try them!
Perfect!
I think I know what I'm going to do with the cranberries I have in the fridge! Recently made a WW friendly cranberry bread in the slow cooker using leftover cranberry sauce, which turned out really well too.
Looks so good! If a serving is one slice, how many slices does it make?
16, you can also make them into muffins for 12 servings, the points will go up of coarse.
How delicious does this look! Delish!
Need bananas STAT!
Would this work in a bread machine?
I love cranberries and happen to have some ripe bananas, making this today, thanks.
The trouble is this looks too good…hard to resist more than 2 slices….;)
http://vodkaandarose.blogspot.co.uk
This looks so delicious, I'll have to try it!
Much Love,
-Stephanie Eva
www.stephanieheva.blogspot.com