Low Carb Banana Bread

Looking for a low-carb banana bread that’s full of banana flavor, but uses real bananas and not banana extract? This is it! The deliciousness of a traditional banana bread without the added sugar.

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If you’ve ever wondered if you could make a lower carb, reduced carb, or low carb banana bread using REAL bananas, here’s your answer:

There seems to be a misconception that when you want to reduce the overall carbohydrate load of a recipe you have to abandon ALL carbohydrates in that recipe.

This is neither true nor terribly helpful from a taste and enjoyment standpoint.

First, it’s important to understand that the recipes I share here, while sometimes suitable for people following a keto diet, I don’t personally follow a keto diet. I am developing low-carb baking and dessert recipes as a way to replace high-carbohydrate, high-sugar, low-nutrient baked goods, with lower-carbohydrate, sugar-free, higher-nutrient baked goods.

So while there may be a version of “keto banana bread” out there that avoid bananas altogether and opts for banana extract, I find this to be unnecessary. Four bananas spread out over an entire recipe isn’t enough carbohydrates to push this bread into any sort of high-carb category.

Furthermore, the taste is SO much better using the real thing!

A few notes about this bread in particular:

• It has what my grandfather would a “sad streak.” You’ll see in the picture that it sinks just a bit in the center when taken out of the oven. I started to retest it to eliminate it, but honestly, the flavor/texture is so enjoyable as-is, I decided to go with it. If this bothers you, I might suggest adding 2 more tablespoons of coconut flour to give it more structure.

• Like most low-carb baked goods, it’s really moist. When freshly baked, it’s almost *too moist.* I’m finding that many low-carb baked goods actually taste better with time as they begin to “settle in.” That’s especially true of this banana bread. It’s better to me on the second day.

• Unlike many other banana bread recipes (including my super popular [and not sugar-free] Sourdough Discard Banana Bread), this recipe calls for peanut butter, cinnamon and nutmeg. Don’t be turned off by those ingredients. They may not be traditional, but I promise they’re super subtle. You won’t really notice them. They somehow manage to bring through the taste of banana perfectly.

• As soon as I posted this on Instagram, someone asked “How can this be low-carb if it uses real bananas?” As my husband likes to say “It’s a math exercise.” There are 4 bananas used in this recipe, but it makes 12 slices. This means you’re only eating about 1/3 of a banana per slice. Given that this small serving of banana is the only dense source of useable carbohydrate (coconut flour is high fiber), this easily maintains itself as a low-carb recipe. Don’t believe me? Below is what my blood glucose did after eating it. (Note: If you haven’t listened to The CGM Experiment, you should. It will help make sense of this chart.)

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