So, is keto banana bread possible? Well, you can debate all day about what is keto and what isn’t. In fact, it seems like many people spend all of their waking moments arguing about just that.

But one thing everyone can safely agree on is that bananas are definitely NOT keto-friendly. If you’re a fellow keto dieter, that means you probably haven’t had anything with bananas in it for a very long time. Truly, we can’t remember the last time we had a banana.

However, we recently walked by a bakery and the unmistakable aroma of banana bread wafted out the door, beckoning us in. We thought better of buying it, but after sulking for a bit, we decided that we would try to make our own easy keto banana bread.

Fast forward a few weeks and lo and behold, after dozens of batches, we are proud to present what we like to call our:

Easy Keto Banana Bread Nut Muffins!

keto banana nut muffins low carb

The Muffin aka the “Bread” in Keto Banana Bread

 Like most of our dessert cakes, muffins, and cookies, we use Swerve Vanilla Cake Mix. It’s a great low carb base for baked goods due to its neutral flavor and amazing texture. The main sweetener is erythritol, which is a zero glycemic impact sweetener.

NOTE: If you have a different favorite keto/low carb cake mix, feel free to use it! Just make sure it’s a yellow cake and you still use all the ingredients we do =). Also, you may have to adjust the nutrition facts slightly. The Swerve mix we use contributes 3g net carbs per muffin.

But, wait, this isn’t a vanilla cake recipe– how do we go from this mix to banana bread?

Go Bananas

Okay, let’s be real– there’s no way we are including an actual banana in this recipe. The nutrition facts show that the high carbohydrate of banana just won’t work in the low carb world.

However, our savior is a little thing called Banana Extract. It gets you close enough to the real thing and has a pleasing banana cream pie type of taste. You get that concentrated banana flavor with none of the carbs. 

We use McCormick Banana Extract, which you can buy on the cheap from Amazon, or may also be available at your local Walmart. It uses real banana, so there are no artificial flavors! Thank goodness this stuff exists!

As always, with extracts, a little goes a long way. So, don’t go too bananas with it! =)

What’s the secret to getting the classic banana bread texture without actual banana?

Greek yogurt! The yogurt acts as a binding component and makes the bread softer and more rich, compared to just normal cake.

Also, since we are focusing on lower-carb and keto, we want to find a full-fat, low sugar greek yogurt.  The yogurt basically transforms the cake mix into that oh-so-familiar banana bread texture.

keto friendly yogurt
Source: kalonasupernatural.com

For recipes with yogurt, we always use  Kalona Supernatural’s Organic Plain Greek Yogurt.

It’s only 4g net carbs per serving. However, our recipe calls for less than a serving for the whole batch. We buy ours at Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Natural Grocers, to name a few.

Hint: You can mix your unused yogurt with some store-bought keto jam, which makes a really tasty and decadent low carb fruit yogurt.

Go Nuts

 
 Walnuts are great on keto in general. We regard them as one of the top keto-friendly nuts with low carbs and healthy fats! They also happen to go extremely well with banana flavors and are a must in any banana bread recipe.

It’s a classic win-win situation!

Our favorite brand is Nut Cravings Raw Walnuts since they ring in at 0g net carbs

We use a decent amount of nuts in our recipe, but feel free to mess with the amount to suit your tastes.

PRO- TIP: As always we use our silicone cupcake / muffin pan from Trudeau. It portions everything really well and makes cleaning up super convenient. We aren’t using a bread pan here, but that should work as well (just make sure the toothpick comes out clean).

keto banana muffins low carb

Print Recipe
5 from 3 votes

Keto Banana Nut Muffins

EASY and DELICIOUS! The best low carb banana nut muffins (only 3.5g per muffin!) that you will make. Tastes exactly like your classic Banana Bread without the carbs!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto Banana Nut Muffin
Servings: 12 Muffins
Calories: 233kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 Box Low Carb Cake Mix (White/Yellow)
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
  • 2 teaspoons Banana Extract
  • 1/3 cup Avocado Oil
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1/3 cup Kalona Whole Fat Greek Yogurt Needs to be Whole Fat and no added sugar brand
  • 1/2-3/4 cup Chopped Walnuts or more if you like 🙂

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 F
  • DO NOT FOLLOW THE CAKE BOX INSTRUCTIONS! Follow below...
    Mix all the ingredients together in a medium-sized mixing bowl EXCEPT for the walnuts
  • If you are using a non-silicone muffin pan make sure to line with muffin cups.
  • Once muffin pan is ready fill each muffin cup 1/2 full.
  • Take your chopped walnuts and evenly distribute them on top of each of the uncooked muffins. I like to distribute between each uncooked muffin so I get perfect amounts of walnuts in each muffin 😀
  • Place in oven for 18-23 minutes. Slight browning should occur on top of muffins. You can stick a toothpick in middle and once it comes out clean they are ready.

Have you tried our easy keto banana bread recipe? Try any modifications?

Let us know in the comments section below!