Sneak more vegetables into your day with this moist banana carrot bread topped with crunchy poppy seeds. Have a slice of this with your morning cup of pumpkin spice latte, and you’re good to go for the rest of the day!
Ick, I was feeling under the weather all last week. I don’t know if it is seasonal changes or travel, but I’ve been afflicted with the sniffles. I once worked with someone who told me to always take one of those Emergen-C packets before a flight to prevent catching a cold. I’m not sure if those vitamin C shots are actually effective. At this point, however, I’m willing to try anything to keep myself from getting sick. Feeling groggy all day long is not okay.
What was the best thing to cure my little autumn cold? Baking! That’s right, based on several studies in the HNB test kitchen, I have determined that a fresh loaf of banana carrot bread with an extra coconut boost cures the sniffles. Look, I’m feeling better already! It was the bread, I tell you.
I couldn’t bring myself to drive to the store to get ingredients for baking, so this was truly one of those “throw everything in a bowl and see what happens” kind of efforts. I was tempted to throw in a handful of plump flame raisins into this bread, but then I would have to eat this entire thing on my own. Hmm, perhaps adding the raisins was the better idea after all.
Instead of raisins, I added some coconut oil, coconut sugar, and shredded coconut to make the bread extra special. Add a thin layer of coconut and peanut butter spread on this bread, and it’ll be like having a little piece of heaven.
I know I’ve been baking a ton of banana bread and muffins lately, but they just ripen so quickly in my apartment. A day or two on the counter and it’s spotted like a dalmatian. It’s as if my kitchen is an incubator! As long as there are overripe bananas sitting on my counter, there will be more banana bread recipes on this blog. Hope you enjoy!
Banana Carrot Bread with Coconut
Ingredients
- natural cooking spray
- 3 medium ripe bananas
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (100g) coconut sugar (or any other sugar)
- 1/2 cup (115g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, 60ml, melted (you can also use vegetable oil)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (120g) whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (60g) shredded carrots
- 1/2 cup (40g) unsweetened shredded coconut
- poppy seeds for topping, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray a loaf pan with natural cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas together. Mix in the eggs, sugar, applesauce, oil, and vanilla extract until well incorporated.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Add in the salt, and mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
- Fold in the carrots and coconut, but don’t over-stir. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and sprinkle poppy seeds on top if you like.
- Bake the bread for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out quite clean. It’s fine if a few crumbs are stuck to the toothpick.
- Let the bread cool for 15 to 20 minutes before slicing it. I know it is tempting to want to scarf this down immediately, but the bread tends to be very crumbly when I slice into it while it’s still hot. Let it cool down first!
- Store leftovers in room temperature for a few days. After that, store it in the refrigerator.
Angie@Angie's Recipes says
I love the add of carrot and coconut in the classic banana bread. It looks so moist and perfectly dense..exactly my kind of quick bread.
Lisa says
Thanks, Angie!
Kelly // The Pretty Bee: Cooking & Creating says
I love all the “extras” in this banana bread! Yum! There’s nothing better than banana bread in autumn!
Lisa says
Thanks, Kelly! I figured I should break up the pumpkin madness in my kitchen with a banana treat.
Shashi @ runninsrilankan says
I adore your take on banana bread – all that coconut must have made this a delicious treat indeed!!
Lisa says
Thanks, Shashi!
GiGi Eats says
This is a manage tois I would like to join in on 😉
Lisa says
Hah! Thanks, GiGi!
Katie (The Muffin Myth) says
Wow, this looks great! I usually keep my carrot cake and my banana bread separate, but why not mash them up? I love that you’ve use coconut in this too. I totally would have chucked the raisins in because I love raisins with carroty things. Mmm. Now I know what to do with my brown bananas! Thanks for the recipe!
Lisa says
Thanks, Katie. I was SOO tempted throw in the raisins (especially because they’re the plump kind from farmers markets). The raisins would have been frowned upon in my house though!
Olivia - Primavera Kitchen says
This looks beyond words good!
Lisa says
Thanks, Olivia!!
Erin | The Law Student's Wife says
This bread could cure ANYTHING. I love a good fruit/veggie sneak too!
Lisa says
Thanks, Erin! I’ve been shoving fruits and veggies into my baked goods so much lately that it feels odd when I don’t!
Arman @ thebigmansworld says
I LOVE using coconut sugar and coconut oil in baked goods- you have a winner here. Like Poppy’s pizza..
Would you like some banana carrot bread?
*shakes head frivolously*
Lisa says
I’ll get you a slice of this! PLUS, there’s poppy seeds on here for Poppy/Poppie/Papi (however that name is spelled). Do you say “spelt” or “spelled”? English from Commonwealth countries confuse me way too much.
Jill says
Love the idea of adding carrot and coconut to banana bread, not something I would ever have thought of trying!
Lisa says
I love sneaking in veggies wherever I can! Thanks, Jill!
Mandi says
This bread looks amazing. And I love sneaking in some veggies also 😉
Lisa says
Thanks, Mandi!
Alex Caspero MA,RD (@delishknowledge) says
This looks SO good! i LOVE banana bread and can’t wait to try it with carrots and coconut! PS- I use that Earth balance coconut spread on everything! Its amazing!!
Lisa says
Thanks, Alex! That coconut spread is so addictive!
femke says
Hi Lisa,
I cannot eat apples, therefor could you give me another option? 50gr of dates? Or can i use cocoblossomsugar or stevia? Or do you use applesauce because then its moist and i need to add some milk or water instead? just want to do it right so it doesn’t come out all weird 🙂 also, are there other types of flour i can use, gluten free? and do you know the proportions because they tend to say online you cannot just replace the same amount.. thanks for your help!
Lisa says
Hi Femke! The applesauce is there to replace some oil and sugar. I’ve never tried this recipe without applesauce before, so your instincts are just as good as mine here. If you want a low fat replacement, I would probably add about 1/4 cup of yogurt and a few more tablespoons of sugar to replace. Otherwise, you can also use 1/3 cup of oil instead, and add a few more tablespoons of sugar. Then, see how thick the batter is. If you think it’s too thick, then add some milk. As for the gluten-free replacement, the easiest I’ve found is just to use the gluten-free baking flour blends that are a one-to-one replacement for regular flour. Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur flour both have gluten-free blends. Hope this helps!
Penny says
Hi Lisa – if I want to replace all oil with Apple sauce, how much more apple sauce should I use? And can I use whole wheat flour only? Thanks.
Lisa says
Penny, I’ve definitely never tried using only applesauce in the bread before, so I can’t say for certain how everything will turn out. I found this post on Livestrong’s website, and hopefully it helps: http://www.livestrong.com/article/429838-how-to-use-applesauce-instead-of-oil-when-baking/.
About using only whole wheat flour, it should be fine!
Erin says
Hi Lisa, I have this baking in the oven now, and I was so excited (it looks beautiful and smells great!), but I just realized there is an error in the recipe that I didn’t catch before I made it. You list the amount of sugar as ½ cup (270g) . I always go by weight and was excited to see you had listed them, so I didn’t even look at the cup measurements. But I believe 1/2 cup would be 100g, not 270g, and therefore I expect this bread will be about 3x too sweet. I wish I’d caught the mistake before I made the recipe, but I just thought you might want to know.
Lisa says
Hi Erin, Thank you SOO Much for catching that error! You’re right, a 1/2 cup should be closer to 100g. I’m so sorry that you have already went ahead with the baking!
Erin says
No problem – I tried it this morning and it’s still very good, albeit very sweet — more like a cake than a bread. I’ll definitely make it again sometime with less sugar.
Lisa says
Thanks again for trying the recipe, Erin!!
Lisa Williamson says
I baked this amazing cake today and so impressed with how delicious it turned out. I didn’t have any apples sauce or wholemeal flour on hand so I just added a small grated apple instead (no extra liquid required due to white flour). I used brown sugar as no coconut sugar on hand. the poppy seeds add a great extra depth to this cake that I really like. Thanks Angie for this recipe.