For the President’s Day holiday weekend, my parents drove down to visit, along with their two golden retrievers. They arrived shortly before dinnertime, so while Grandma and Dad opted to stay home and order pizza, Mom and I drove to Panera for a healthier meal.
After ordering a salad for me and a half-sandwich for her, with a cup of black bean soup on the side, we found a little booth away from most of the other patrons. We chatted while waiting for our food to arrive, and when Mom realized that Target and Marshalls shared the same parking lot as Panera, her eyes lit up… And she asked if we could stop by both before heading home.
I laughed and immediately agreed!
We walked to Target first, and as soon as we entered the store, we slowly wandered through their “Dollar Aisle” section at the front, just past the shopping carts and baskets. Since Valentine’s Day had already passed, we found plenty of Easter-themed items: candy, plastic eggs, straw baskets, egg decorating kits, and even clip-on bowties for little boys to wear on Easter morning!
The same thing happened at Marshalls. Although we intended to go straight to the dog section for toys, we paused at their Easter display just inside the front door. I snagged a cute pastel orange ceramic egg carton, and Mom found adorable dishtowels covered in tiny Peeps!
When we arrived back at home with our purchases, we were both in the Easter spirit… Even though it was over a month and a half away! And since I associate all things carrot cake with Easter, I ended up baking this healthy carrot cake banana bread soon after.
It has the same flavors as the iconic dessert — cozy cinnamon, a hint of nutmeg, and plenty of sweet carrots! — but with a fun fruity twist. Yet unlike traditional carrot cake, this easy recipe is healthy enough for breakfast!
KEY INGREDIENTS TO MAKE HEALTHY CARROT CAKE BANANA BREAD
To make this healthy carrot banana bread, you’ll start with whole wheat flour, along with cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg. The nutmeg adds a wonderful richness and depth to the spice flavor. As for the cinnamon, I’m currently obsessed with this one because it tastes brighter, bolder, and sweeter than “regular” cinnamon. It’s basically the only kind I now use in my baking!
Tip: If you’d like to make your carrot cake banana bread gluten-free, then see the Notes section of the recipe. I’ve included my recommendations on how to do that there!
To keep this carrot banana bread on the healthy side, you’ll use a mere ½ tablespoon of butter or oil. Yes, that’s it! The rest of this low-calorie banana bread’s tender texture comes from two other ingredients: Greek yogurt and mashed banana. If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you know how much I love baking with Greek yogurt! It adds the same moisture to your batter as extra butter or oil for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your treats a protein boost too!
The mashed banana not only provides tenderness… It also adds natural sweetness! See those bananas? That’s the minimum amount of brown spots I recommend. I actually prefer bananas that are almost entirely brown for my baking recipes!
This is because the brown bananas contain more natural sweetness than their pure yellow friends… So if you use extra ripe bananas, you’ll only need to mix a small amount of pure maple syrup (like this!) into the batter to boost your loaf’s natural sweetness.
Just before spreading the batter into your loaf pan, you’ll gently stir in freshly grated carrots. Do not use the pre-shredded store-bought ones! They’re also called “matchstick” carrots. Those are much thicker and drier than freshly grated carrots, and they don’t soften as much while baking. I promise it’s worth the small amount of extra effort to grate your own carrots!
Tip: If your food processor has a grater attachment, that makes the grating step go even faster!
HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY CARROT CAKE BANANA BREAD
This healthy carrot cake banana bread is easy to make — I promise! I just have a few tips for you, starting with…
Use alternating additions. This is a simple trick I like to use when mixing together batters: cake, cupcake, muffin, and — yup! — banana bread too. It’s a shorthand way of saying, “Alternate between adding a bit of the flour mixture, gently stirring it in, switching to a splash of milk, gently stirring it in, sprinkling in more of the flour mixture, gently stirring it in… And continuing going until you run out of flour and milk!”
Alternating additions help guard against overmixing. Overmixing yields a tough, gummy, rubbery, or dense texture… Not good! But if you use alternating additions, and a light hand when stirring them in, you’ll end up with a beautifully moist and tender carrot cake banana bread. Oh! And that reminds me…
Mix by hand. Put away your stand mixer and hand-held mixer! Those tend to overmix low fat and low calorie batters (like this one!). Instead, use a whisk where explicitly instructed and a fork for everything else. Yup, a fork! The open space between the fork’s tines allow the ingredients to pass through and blend together more efficiently, compared to the flat wide side of a spatula or wooden spoon.
Cool completely. As tempting as it may be to slice into your loaf while it’s still warm, please promise me that you’ll wait until your carrot cake banana bread has cooled completely. A loaf’s (or cake’s!) structure doesn’t finish setting until it reaches room temperature, so you’ll disrupt that process if you cut into it too soon. I know it’s incredibly hard to wait, especially with that sweet and cozy aroma wafting around your kitchen, but it’s totally worth it!
How yummy does this banana bread look? It definitely put me in a permanent Easter mood… So I have plenty more fun carrot cake recipes coming your way soon! 😉
And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy carrot cake banana bread!
Healthy Carrot Cake Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240g) whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tbsp (7g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ¾ cup (200g) mashed banana (about 2 medium – and see Notes!)
- 2 tbsp (30mL) pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup (60mL) nonfat milk
- 1 ½ cups (160g) freshly grated carrot (about 2 medium – peeled first!)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 9x5” loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the Greek yogurt, stirring until no large lumps remain. Mix in the mashed banana and maple syrup. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 3 equal parts.) Gently fold in the carrots.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350°F for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ Healthy Classic Carrot Cake
♡ Healthy Carrot Cake Oatmeal Muffins
♡ Healthy Carrot Cake Scones
♡ Healthy Carrot Cake Oatmeal Snack Cake
♡ Healthy Zucchini Banana Bread
♡ Healthy Cinnamon Apple Banana Bread
♡ Healthy Peach Pie Banana Bread
♡ …and the rest of Amy’s carrot cake-themed recipes and healthy banana bread recipes!
Hi! Can I use flax eggs instead of egg whites?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Juliette! I don’t have much experience with flax eggs, but I know Ener-G will work! (My brother is allergic to eggs, and that’s our favorite egg replacer. It works perfectly in nearly all of my recipes, including this one!) If you decide to try Ener-G in my recipes, you’ll need 1½ teaspoons of Ener-G + 2 tablespoons of warm water for each egg white, and you’ll need an additional ½ tablespoon of butter or coconut oil for each egg yolk. 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try this banana bread!
Are these recipes suitable for diabetics or high cholesterol??
I really appreciate your interest in my recipes, Laura! I’m not a trained healthcare professional, so I don’t feel comfortable providing medical advice about whether my recipes are suitable for diabetics or people with high cholesterol. However, I do share the full nutrition information for my recipes directly underneath the recipe boxes, including the total cholesterol, carbohydrates, sugars, etc. If you shared that full nutrition information with a trained healthcare professional, I’m sure they’d be able to assist you in determining whether the recipe was suitable for a particular dietary need!
If you decide to try making this banana bread, I’d love to hear what you think of it! 🙂
Love the fusion of banana bread and carrot cake in this treat! And you can’t beat a trip to Target – always so many great, fun seasonal finds 🙂
Thanks Liz! So true about Target — I could spend my entire bank account there! 😉
Hi Amy,
Thanks for your recipes. Do you have any suggestions for what I might substitute for eggs in this recipe.
Thanks,
Sravanthi
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Sravanthi! My brother is allergic to eggs, and Ener-G is our favorite egg replacer. It works perfectly in nearly all of my recipes, including this one! If you decide to try Ener-G in my recipes, you’ll need 1½ teaspoons of Ener-G + 2 tablespoons of warm water for each egg white, and you’ll need an additional ½ tablespoon of butter or coconut oil for each egg yolk. ? I’d love to hear what you think if you try this banana bread!
I made the carrot/banana bread today with disappointing results. It was moist, but lacked flavor. I followed the recipe but added additional honey, still bland with that added. I put the mini loaves in the freezer hoping they will develop flavor.
Thanks for your recipes, I won’t give up on baking more of them.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Bobby Rae! That sounds really disappointing. How ripe were your bananas? Did they have as many (or more!) brown spots as the ones in my photo in this blog post? Also, what brand of cinnamon and nutmeg did you use? We’ll get that bland issue sorted out so it doesn’t happen again in your future banana bread loaves! 🙂
Hi Amy – yes, the bananas were very ripe & the cinnamon is from our local coop. I do a lot of baking so it was fresh. I think it was so low in fat it affected the flavor.
Thanks for the info Bobby Rae! Was that cinnamon Saigon cinnamon, by any chance? Also, just to double check, do you mean lacking in spice flavor or lacking in sweetness when you say “bland?”
I agree with the above comment. The texture was good, but I also feel it lacked flavor. I used very ripe bananas. I just feel it needs a little more sweetness to bring out the flavor.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Mimi! Were your bananas as ripe as mine were in the blog post photo? If so, and you’d still like sweeter banana bread, then see the Notes section (located directly underneath the Instructions) for what to do to make your banana bread sweeter. I know it can be easy to miss that bit! 🙂 I’d love to hear whether you like the sweeter version any better!
Hi!!! Would you know the macros for this recipe?
Thanks!!
Yes! They’re located directly underneath the recipe. I know it can be easy to miss! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try this banana bread, Mei!
Could I make muffins with the same ingedients/method?
Thank you for a recipe with syrup as the only sweetener! I replace the maple with rice bran syrup and then I can have it!
It’s not quite as sweet as Maple, but being dextrose it is better for me as a pre-diabetic.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this banana bread Jan! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know and share your recipe modifications — I always love hearing what tweaks work! 🙂
I made this and it really was not good — kinda tasted like plastic and bland
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe! That sounds so disappointing and not like how this banana bread should turn out at all, so I’d love to work with you to figure out what happened. 🙂 Did you make any modifications to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section? How did you measure the flour and bananas, with a kitchen scale or measuring cups? Finally, how ripe were your bananas? Once I know all of that information, I should have a much better idea of what happened and how to fix it!
Can I use blender for carrots and yogurt and milk and bananas?
I want make less carrot shapes for my son.
I’m honored that you’d like to try making this recipe, Chiharu! You can use a blender for the yogurt, milk, and bananas to make that mixture really smooth. I remember texture is important to your son from one of the previous recipes of mine that you tried, but I don’t recommend using a blender for the carrots. That will throw off the ratio of wet and dry ingredients, so your banana bread won’t bake properly. However, the carrots in this banana bread end up with a really soft texture (not hard or crunchy!) because the quick bread bakes for so long, if that makes any difference! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you and your son think if you end up making this banana bread!