Keto Banana Bread With Real Bananas in 55 mins [GUIDE and RECIPE]

A keto banana bread recipe that uses real bananas with no eggy taste (4g net carbs per slice). For us, banana bread was a simple afternoon tea delight but we were never too happy about the 2 cups of sugar to every cup of plain flour ratio that was often being used in the traditional recipes that could yield about 33g of sugar per slice, based on USDA nutrition facts on banana bread.

This post could possibly help you to narrow down the recipe or recipes you would like to try that would most suit your taste, so follow us and take notes, if you’d like.

Firstly, we need to know what we are looking for in a tasty keto banana bread.

Beginner’s Guide To Making Keto Banana Bread With Real Bananas

What makes the best tasting keto banana bread?

Appearance – We’re looking for a good rise in the bread that is going to give us a nice height, almost double the height of our mixture so it can’t be flat or dense. A soft texture that holds up well because it has been enveloped by a thin yet firm crusty exterior. And when you slice the bread, it’s capable of bouncing back to its original height.

Aroma – It is going to have to smell like a good balance of cooked bananas and baked butter.

Taste – We are looking for a moist interior, rich banana flavour with a crusty baked exterior for our keto banana bread and must taste like traditional banana bread.

Must be keto – Why? This is just our own personal choice because the keto version seems to incorporate the balance of healthy eating, even though we are not on a ketogenic diet. Therefore, it is suitable for our current lifestyle, health condition, and taste preferences that we’re looking for since it allows for fat content. However, we do need to keep the carbohydrates on the low side about 2-4g carbs per slice.

Ironically, fruits are a major No-no in the clean keto book because of their sugar content. And lo and behold, bananas, in particular, do rate highly on the sugar scale with about 27g per regular medium banana weighing at 118g each.

That is more than half of the recommended daily sugar intake for a clean keto diet that specifies an intake as low as 20g and under 50g of sugar.

If you find that to be a worry, there’s a solution for this found in a bottle of 100% banana extract made from real bananas but do get the right one as apparently some may give a bitter after taste if their extract isn’t from real bananas.

However, we found the comparisons between using real bananas and the extract to be of little difference to the overall net sugar content in each slice based on the nutritional facts revealed in Kelley Herring’s recipe that used real overripe bananas and Maya Krampf’s recipe that uses extract. If you are one that really needs to get into the nitty-gritty of numbers and needs to strictly follow the diet down to every milligram then this comparison table might help you.

Related Posts:

• Keto Breads by Kelley Herring Review (Tried & Tested)
• Keto Diet 101: Getting Started with Ketogenic Lifestyle
• Can I have keto desserts everyday?
• Keto Desserts: What Recipes Are In The Book?
• Coconut Flour vs Regular Flour (3 Brands Compared + Best Coconut Flour REVEALED)
• Grain Free Sourdough Bread: Cassava Flour Recipe

So which keto banana bread recipe is the best one for your keto diet? It really depends on how strict you need to be to achieve your weight loss goals and how much priority you place on using real ingredients. Only you will be able to determine what your mind and body are capable of achieving.

Maya Krampf’s recipe strives to give the individual the lowest carb intake as possible while making room for other carbs throughout the day whereas Kelley Herring’s version prefers to use real ingredients as much as possible without resorting to extra industrial processes. Keep in mind, that neither option is wrong, it’s just a matter of choice and what results you want to achieve. At least, there is the option for the individual who wishes to forego the extra carb saved and can choose to use real ingredients instead.

Now we know what we want in a keto banana bread, what’s next?

Who are our references in finding the Best Tasting and Easy Keto Banana Bread recipe?

Keto banana bread recipes are not a new thing and there are countless out there at the moment, as a simple online search will tell you. In other words, there’s no need to re-invent the wheel but which ‘wheel’ is the best one for us?

With so many recipes out there, which is going to be the best keto banana bread recipe for us?

We have narrowed down our choices to these 3;

1. Kelley Herring’s Keto Bread cookbook, available as a physical book or digital copy.
2. Best Keto Bread Recipe (the author admitted to trying numerous keto bread recipes that resulted in “not bad” tasting breads but she decided to strive for a recipe closer to her idea of “perfection”).
3. Best Keto Banana Bread without using overripe bananas.

And why did we choose these 3 keto bread/ banana bread recipes vs tons of others?

Firstly, 2 out of 3 of the authors have saved us time in searching for the best because they have already done the hard work for us, that is performing all the rigorous testing that goes behind their own recipes.

Kelley Herring from Healing Gourmet has been developing healthy recipes since 2007 and at one point struck a book deal with publishing giant, McGraw-Hill, before most people have ever heard of the term “ketogenic”. Therefore, she’s someone that has been around the block a long time and has never stopped improving her recipes.

The other author who has spent her time in testing keto bread recipes is Megha from Ketoconnect because she has claimed to have spent 3 years and found the secret to making the best keto bread that enabled her to create maximum rise for her bread. Her tip has been a great contribution to this recipe.

Furthermore, these authors and their recipes have also met the following criteria;

1. These are recipe authors that walk the talk

In order to locate real keto recipes, the recipe author (preferably but not necessarily) would need to have underwent their own personal keto journey and have reaped the rewards of a better health because of it and not just have developed the recipe for the sake of jumping on the keto bandwagon. All 3 authors fit this criterion.

2. Their recipes are highly rated by many users

Their recipes should have garnered countless likes, social media shares and positive comments, ensuring that it has been tried and taste-tested over and over again. This way you can be sure that the final result is less likely to taste like cardboard and that would have saved you weeks of trial and error (not to mention… your sanity) if you were to try every keto banana bread recipe out there.

3. Their keto banana bread must taste like the real deal

This one is a really important criterion for us. The enjoyment of eating makes us feel alive. Therefore, if it doesn’t taste good, it’s just no good as a long-term solution as we are looking for a go-to recipe when we think of keto banana bread. The author for the Best Keto Bread mentioned she had tried many recipes and spent almost 3 years looking for the Holy Grail recipe of Keto Bread but nothing seemed to strike home with her, so she developed her own version. That dedication alone was good enough for me to take a closer look into her version of keto bread and see if it could potentially help in discovering our very own perfect keto banana bread. After all, a keto banana bread is just a keto bread with bananas, right?

Kelley Herring had also spent years on perfecting her versions of keto desserts and keto breads as she emphasizes in finding the optimum balance of taste and health when it comes to her recipes.

The years spent by these dedicated food authors gave me the confidence to know that their recipes would stand the test of time and taste.

4. The keto bread recipes must be easy to do even for a complete novice baker

The recipe must not be complicated. It should be achievable with basic tools and the methodology must be simple and easy to follow using 10 steps or less, uses less than 10 ingredients and being able to achieve something close to the photo finish shown in their book or blogs would be an absolute plus.

What we’ve learned so far in summary…

And here’s the recipe we’ve come up with using the basis of Kelley Herring’s recipe. We’ve picked her because she has been around the longest compared to the other 2 (since early 2000s) and her recipe book is still around and has recently been updated. We have also chosen to use real ingredients since we are not particularly calculative on the carb intake. In summary, she can be considered a one-stop shop for keto recipes involving breads, desserts and even daily meals.

Recipe: Best Tasting and Easy Keto Banana Bread in 55 mins (includes 10 min prep time)

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 40-45 mins

This recipe is a spin-off of Kelley Herring’s original Keto Banana Bread from her book Keto Breads that has the option of adding walnuts and using overripe bananas. We have added our own little touches based on some of tips that were discovered from each of our chosen authors. For those who need to count every calorie and are looking for the clean keto version, kindly use banana extract instead of overripe bananas.

Equipment

• 2 medium mixing bowls
• 1 large mixing bowl
• Handheld electric mixer or whisk
• Silicone spatula
• Baking or parchment paper
• 6” x 3.5” x 2.8” (15 cm x 9 cm x 7 cm) loaf pan

Ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup coconut flour (55 g)
• 1⁄2 cup finely ground almond flour (50 g)
• 1⁄2 tsp. baking soda (2.5 g)
• 1⁄4 tsp. sea salt (1.3 g)
• 1⁄4 cup of monk fruit (optional if using overripe bananas as some may find it too sweet)
• 1⁄2 cup virgin coconut oil, melted (120 ml)
• 4 pastured eggs (200 g)
• 2 tsp. organic vanilla extract (10 ml)
• 1 cup overripe mashed bananas, generally 2 medium size bananas (240 ml) or 2 tsp of banana extract

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and grease or oil a 6” x 3.5” x 2.8” (15 cm x 9 cm x 7 cm) loaf pan.
2. Place baking paper as a sling lengthwise at the bottom of the greased loaf pan, extending over both sides of the shorter edges. This makes for easier removal of the bread from the loaf pan later.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, sea salt and mix them up.
4. In a large bowl, separate the whites from the yolks and whisk it up until you get soft peaks. This might take some elbow grease if you don’t have an electric mixer.
5. In another medium bowl, mix the yolks, melted coconut oil, vanilla extract and monk fruit (optional) and whisk them together.
6. Combine mixtures, the mashed bananas and the whipped egg whites in the large mixing bowl. Mix them up until all the egg whites have just blended in. That will make the mixture just right without overdoing it.
7. Scrape the thick batter with a silicone spatula into the loaf pan and spread it evenly. We discovered that a silicone spatula works better at scrapping every last drop of batter without waste, compared to a wooden or metal one.
8. Transfer to oven and bake 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. You can even use a toothpick inserted into the center and see if it comes out clean. If it does, then the bread has been baked thoroughly.
9. Leave the bread to cool for about 10 minutes and keep in an airtight container or in the fridge for up to 7-10 days. (My bread finished in less than 3 days, it was THAT yummy!)

Tip: For a fresher and tastier bread, cut the bread into slices only when needed.