Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on Last updated

19 Comments

5 from 5 votes
24 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Cool 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
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Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread is a one bowl easy quick bread with walnuts, coconut, bananas, cherries and pineapple inside in just an hour.

Okay, so you’ve definitely had Banana Bread, you’ve maybe even had Banana Nut Bread, but have you tried Hawaiian Banana Nut Bread? Even if you have before, you’re in for a treat with this easy recipe that will impress your family, friends and dinner guests.

Slice of Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread

HAWAIIAN NUT BANANA BREAD

This is the best banana bread to share for a summer picnic or BBQ. Hawaiian banana bread is full of flavor, as well as pineapple and coconut, and is a great dessert if you’re trying to feed a large group (or if it’s all for you, we won’t judge).

This bread is similar to one we purchased while driving down the Road to Hana on our recent trip to Maui. We were about halfway through the drive when we came to a small strip of restaurants (note: there are no restrooms there, trust me don’t try) and at the very end of the row of them was a small coffee shop that had a large variety of banana breads for sale. One of the “specials” they had included coconuts and maraschino cherries with macadamia nuts in it.

In this recipe I swap out the macadamia nuts for walnuts (either way would taste delicious!) but the maraschino cherries and the coconut helps to keep this banana bread extra moist! When we returned from Hawaii we spent the better part of a week baking all the quick breads we enjoyed on the island while the memories were still fresh and this recipe is right up at the top of our favorites!

If you liked this recipe, next time you should try some Zucchini Bread. If you want something geared specifically for the holidays, try my Cranberry Bread or Chocolate Pumpkin Bread for Halloween.

HOW TO MAKE HAWAIIAN BANANA BREAD

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans.
  2. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, sugar and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add the walnuts, eggs, oil, banana, pineapple, coconut and cherries to the dry ingredients.
  4. Divide the batter evenly between the two greased pans and put them in the oven.
  5. Bake until you can insert a toothpick into the center of each loaf and it comes out clean.
  6. Take out the bread and let the loaves cool in the pans for about 10 minutes on a wire rack.
  7. Serve it up and watch how fast it disappears.

Important Note: do not want to over mix the batter. Stir until everything is just barely blended together and then leave it alone.

 

Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread stacked

VARIETIES OF HAWAIIAN NUT BANANA BREAD

  • Nuts: you can use macadamia nuts, pecans or cashews along with or instead of walnuts if you want to experiment with the texture and flavor of the bread.
  • Homemade Whipped Cream: you can easily whip up (pun intended) this classic topping in a matter of minutes. Whipped cream dresses up the Hawaiian Banana Bread and adds an awesome texture to it.
  • Vanilla Ice Cream: serve your bread with a scoop of ice cream you made yourself to really impress your family, your guests and yourself. It’s much easier to make than you think and you can use this same recipe to make all sorts of different flavors.

SERVE HAWAIIAN NUT BANANA BREAD WITH 

  • Bacon Egg and Cheese Hawaiian Sliders: these are a must if you’re throwing a summer party or brunch. These sliders take classic American breakfast favorites and serve them up with a twist in a slider. They also make great appetizers and finger food.
  • Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken: a Hawaiian take on a classic Japanese sauce. Shoyu chicken is great for a weeknight dinner when you don’t have a ton of time and it is a great main course to go with a banana bread dessert.
  • Hawaiian Style Macaroni Salad: macaroni salad is a great side for many Hawaiian style dishes, and is so easy to make you’ll be shocked.

THE ORIGINS OF BANANA BREAD

You actually have baking powder and soda to thank for this one. Once they became more available in American households during the 1930s, people started experimenting with different kinds of bread. Banana bread quickly became a favorite because it gave people something to do with the bananas that had been haunting their kitchen for weeks that they didn’t want to throw away. The first version of banana bread actually showed up in Pillsbury’s Balanced Recipes Cookbook that they released in 1933.

Some food historians believe that the Great Depression helped with the popularity of banana bread because you could use ingredients that were otherwise too far gone to make a tasty food that could be easily sliced up and carried to whatever work could be found. Banana bread is now a favorite food around the nation with as many different kinds of recipes as there are people making them.

HOW LONG DOES HAWAIIAN NUT BANANA BREAD IT KEEP?

  • Serve: if you keep it in an airtight container, banana bread is good for about 3 days at room temperature, although it may start to get stale. So don’t worry if you left the bread out last night, you can still have a slice.
  • Store: your leftovers will last a bit longer in the fridge. If you wrap the loaf up in plastic wrap, it will stay good for about 1 week.
  • Freeze: you can freeze leftover bread for about 2 to 3 months. In order to enjoy it while it’s still moist, I would recommend thawing it and eating it before you hit the 3 month mark.

Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread in loaf pan

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Dinner, then Dessert

Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread

Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread is a one bowl easy quick bread with walnuts, coconut, bananas, cherries and pineapple inside in just an hour.
Yield 24 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Course Bread
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Slice of Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 3 cups flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon  baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup  vegetable oil
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 large bananas , mashed (very ripe bananas)
  • 1 cup walnuts , chopped
  • 8 ounces crushed pineapple , drained
  • 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
  • 1 1/2 cups maraschino cherries , chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray two 9x5 inch loaf pans with baking spray (or butter and flour them).
  • Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon into a large bowl.
  • Whisk in the eggs, oil, sugar and bananas until combined.
  • Fold in the walnuts, drained crushed pineapple, sweetened flaked coconut and maraschino cherries then pour the batter evenly into two pans and bake them for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  • Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing from loaf pans.

Nutrition

Calories: 231kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Sodium: 160mg | Potassium: 166mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 58IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg

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Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread

 

 

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I never leave reviews but this was great. Due to a nut allergy we had to leave them out. So we replaced them with chocolate chips and man was it good. Thank you for such a great recipe

    Reply

    1. I’m sure you might be able to find a more natural alternative to making your own online. I don’t have a recipe but will add it to my research list.

      Reply

  8. This recipe is just ok. Very dense. I find that it lacks flavor. For the cup of oil I substituted 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce and only 1/2 cup oil so it does not have an oily texture. The recipe calls for vanilla, but not the amount to be used so I used one teaspoon. I don’t think I will make this again.

    Reply

    1. I’m sorry it didn’t turn out well for you. I ended up removing the vanilla from the recipe because it didn’t need the flavor. I hope you try some of my other bread recipes in the future and that they turn out better for you.

      Reply

  9. your instructions call for vanilla, in batter but, not in ingredients.
    Not to clear on steps 4 and 5. Sound like repeats.
    The bread sounds wonderful.

    Reply

    1. Yes sorry, I work on the steps of the ingredients a lot and rework things. I must’ve left the two versions in by accident, thank you for catching it so quickly, I edited out the duplicate.

      Reply

  10. I love love your recipes , they are so delicious and on point. My family and I truly enjoy them.
    I looked at your ingredient list for the Hawaiian Nut Banana Bread but did not see how much vanilla to use. My guest would be one teaspoon?

    Reply

    1. I actually removed vanilla from the recipe because in the testing with the maraschino cherries and the coconut you don’t need it at all. With the vanilla costs being so high I didn’t want to waste the vanilla if you can’t even taste it. In my previous testing I did use 1 teaspoon though. You won’t go wrong either way. 🙂

      And thank you so much for the kind words!

      Reply