Carrot Cake Protein Banana Bread

A hearty Carrot Cake Protein Banana Bread, minus the high calories due to using apple sauce instead of oil, is my version of breakfast heaven. Or dessert. Or snack. With 8g protein and just about 235 calories per piece, you can have this whenever you like and feel good about it. Plus of course a high fibre content due to carrots, oats and wholewheat flour.

 

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• Why You Will Love This
• The Ingredients
• The Process
• Meal Prep

Why You Will Love This 

Nutrient Dense

Always looking for high protein snacks (Read here how and why I use protein powder), desserts and breakfast, I really wanted something sweet. Looking into my freezer and seeing the stacks of frozen bananas, it clearly had to be banana bread. Wanting to add more veggies, I remembered this Carrot Cake Banana Bread.  I made it before and loved it, but it was missing the protein content I needed and I wanted to see if I could lower the calories without compromising on flavour. So that’s what I’m adding here. Basically a nutrient dense breakfast with the flavour of Carrot Cake! Who wouldn’t want that?

Easy

Apart from the goodness of veggies and protein, this is super easy to make. Basically just mix the wet, stir the wet into the dry, fold in the carrots and you are done. The Lemon icing is optional but delicious and I feel it rounds up the cake from just a banana bread to utterly delicious.

Great use for frozen Bananas

I don’t know about you, but I always have some bananas that get a bit overripe on my counter, so I tend to freeze them for later use. I often use them for Nice-Cream (let me know if you would like a recipe for my Chocolate Nice Cream), banana bread like this or my warm Tiramisu Oats.

Versatile

I’ve made this both as one large loaf of Carrot Cake Protein Banana Bread or lots of cute small ones, for ease of freezing. You could also make muffings from this batter. Just bake them a little shorter. My Mini Breads took about 25 minutes, which will be similar for muffins. 

The Ingredients

• Now if you ever had grated carrots and apples with just a hint of lemon juice and sugar, you’ll know how well these two work together, so I had my answer for the lower calorie version: The use of apple sauce replacing part of the coconut oil lowers the calories but keeps it moist. No dairy either, but juicy carrots and spices, which add irresistible flavour and bite.
• The sugar was replaced by Cinnamon Danish flavoured Protein Powder from my favourite brand “MyProtein” (not sponsored or affiliated, though I wish it would be!) which adds sweetness and emphasizes the spices, of course raising the protein content, transforming it into a Carrot Cake Protein Banana Bread. I’m using the same technique here as in my Banoffee Protein Mousse Pie and Apricot Almond Protein Oats, by pre-mixing the protein into the wet ingredients, to completely dissolve it without adding clumps. This gives the cake more structure and adds flavour, while replacing the sugar you would usually need.
• Apart from that it has nutrient dense rolled oats with all their benefits and great hearty texture, part whole wheat flour for nutty flavour and keeping you fuller for longer,

Note:

Cups, due to the possibility of compacting the flour while dragging the container through it, can give you wildly different results. Use a tablespoon to gently fill the cup with flour, then drag the back of a knife over it to level. This should give you the closest to the standard 120g per cup of flour.

Alternatively, if you have kitchen scales, assume 120g flour per cup and weigh it out.

In some of my recipes I will give gram measurements for this reason, but I mostly try to accommodate the American cup system.

• Almonds for crunch – You could swap the almonds for pecans or walnuts if you prefer, for a more classic Carrot Cake flavour.
• And an egg for both protein and of course cake structure.
• A bit of baking powder, for the rise too.
• I’m using some malted wheat flakes here, but if you don’t have them, just use more oats. I love them as they add malty flavour and some nice chewy bits, but using oats or flour instead will give you a more tender Carrot Cake Protein Banana Bread.
• For some juicy fruit I added raisins, but I know this one is controversial. So if you are one of the raisin haters, leave them out.

The Glaze

Swapping the high calorie cream cheese frosting for a light lemon glaze means it tastes fresher and has about half the calories of the classic version.

• It’s simply made of icing sugar
• And lemon juice, which most of you will have at home as pantry staple.

The Process

Pre-heat your oven to 350°F/175°C.

Grease either a large loaf pan* or a mini loaf pan* with some melted coconut oil. Alternatively line your muffin tin with paper cases.

Grate the carrots and mash the banana. I use my trusty food processor* for this grating the carrots, as I’m lazy. But a box grater* will do just fine (unless you are like me and tend to grate your fingers…ouch!).

Mix the Batter

Mix all the wet ingredients either in Blender* or with a whisk *, so no protein lumps remain.

Stir in the dry: Add all your dry ingredients to the wet in a large bowl* and fold in just until no dry bits remain. Don’t overmix, to avoid developing the gluten from the flour, which will lead to a tough cake.

Fold in the grated carrots and raisins.

Transfer your dough to your preferred baking tin.

Bake

For a large loaf bake for about 40-45 minutes for the mini loaves or muffins about 18-23min. Check with a toothpick. One it comes out clean, your cake is done.

Frost

Let them cool while you prepare the lemon glaze by slowly adding lemon juice to the icing sugar, stirring thoroughly before adding more. It will look too dry first, but the sugar dissolves and if you add too much too fast, it’ll just run off your cake.

Once the Carrot Cake Protein Banana Bread is cooled, use a pastry brush or spoon to spread the glaze evenly over the top.

Serve

This Carrot Cake Protein Banana Bread makes a fantastic healthy breakfast option and an equally good dessert with a cup of coffee or tea. And while the ingredients look nearly too healthy to be good, this was approved as very nice carrot cake by rather non-health-conscious friends, so you can serve this to your guests, and no one will ever suspect you snuck some veggies, protein and fibre into their diet.

Meal Prep

If you’d like to prepare this ahead of time, as I often do, you can leave either all or half of it unglazed and freeze it like that, adding the glaze after it has come to room temperature again.

For the mini loaves, I tend to freeze them in portions, to take out and re-heat in the air fryer *.

Or you could just dust it with icing sugar, as I have done with half of it. The bread has plenty of flavour and moisture, to enjoy it on it’s own.

Here Are Other Protein Desserts/Breakfasts You Might Enjoy:

Cherry Bakewell Protein Oats

Tiramisu Protein Oats Two Ways

Cherry Peach Clafoutis with Protein

High Protein Muffins with Berries and Hidden Veggies

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.