Our banana cake is a relatively recent discovery, after trying a couple of low carb mix sachets. The sachets are great, especially the Snaxx one - it only needs a quick zap in the microwave and it's ready. Great for speed, but it tends to dry up quickly and unless you consume it quick, Georgia tends to lose interest in it.
Now, remember she's a pre-schooler, her snacks should only be between 100 and 150 calories. One of these sachets makes 3-4 portions, so whilst it's great convenience (hence why we still buy it), it's not great value for money.
Even so, I was always hesitant to try. Bananas have a relatively high carbs and sugar content and I just didn't think it would work in a recipe.
banana, yellow, ripened, raw (source: www.foodcomposition.co.nz)
Quantity per 100g of product
Protein - 1.0 g
Fat - 0.3 g
Carbohydrate, available - 21 g
sugars, total - 15 g
Then, one day, I thought - let's just try it, worst case scenario I can't make it at ratio and I give up.
Sure enough, at first the numbers were not numbering. Too much banana, not enough fat, and couldn't just get it up to a 2:1 ratio.
Reminder: 2:1 ratio means that for every 2 grams of fat, there can only be 1 gram of protein + carbs combined.
Then I decided to go all out and just changed food quantities to make it fit into the ratio. I hacked the bananas volume in half, and swapped the butter with coconut oil.
This is a trick I learnt to increase fat content without messing with the recipe consistency too much. Butter typically has a fat content of around 80g, whilst coconut oil is often closer or just above 90g. Doing a 1-for-1 swap (so if the recipe calls for 100g of butter, you swap for 100g of coconut oil) you gain fat without messing with the structural integrity of the final product.
Listen! If cooking is an art, baking is a science, closer to chemistry. Quantities matter, the order in which you combine certain elements matter, and the timing matters. Having to do it all, but keto, feels like being a Double Major in Chemistry and Structural Engineering. No jokes (eh, maybe a little jokes).
Anyway, swapping butter with coconut oil took the whole shebang to a 1.5:1 ratio. I was almost there. By then, my confidence grew and, after staring at my spreadsheet for a couple of minutes, I EUREKAd: LET'S ADD SOME NUTS!
I tried with walnuts initially, the classic choice, which didn't work. The walnuts I had available in my pantry were at a 2.94:1 ratio by themselves, so it wasn't enough of a bump to get the whole recipe where I needed it to be unless I used lots of it, which I did not want to.
Quantity per 100g of product
Protein - 15.2 g
Fat - 65.3 g
Carbohydrate, available - 7 g
sugars, total - 2.6 g
So I did what needed to be done, cried a little for our wallet, and tried with their fancy cousins: pecans. And that did it!
Quantity per 100g of product
Protein - 9.8 g
Fat - 71.93 g
Carbohydrate, available - 4.9 g
sugars, total - 4.3 g
It still feels really weird having to pass every recipe through a spreadsheet and tune it using numbers before you can even consider whether it's feasible from a baking perspective. Anyway, the numbers finally aligned, and I gave it a go.
It is sooooo good, and moist, and soft, and Georgia loved it! I made a few loaves, and I even tried to bake it in mini cupcake moulds, which was very successful and made freezing them real easy. Yes, they freeze well!
Please Note: brands are very important when cooking keto. The same food from different brands will have different nutritional values, which means having to tune the recipe quantities all over again.
Georgia's Almond Banana Bread Recipe
makes 18 toddler servings
Nutritional values per serving
Protein: 4.72g
Fat: 14.84g
Carbs: 2.70g
2:1 ratio
Ingredients
159g banana, ripe
202g eggs (roughly 4 size 6 eggs)
100g coconut oil (Pams)
6g Baking Powder (Edmonds)
2g Cinnamon Ground (Masterfoods)
250g Almond Meal (Cinderella)
35g Pecans (Select)
Cooking Instructions
preheat the oven to 170 Celsius
I'm not giving you instructions of what loaf pan or round pan or mini cupcakes mould you need, you can work it out depending on what you prefer
with a food processor or a mortar, powder the pecans
in a mixing bowl, combine almond meal, cinnamon, baking powder, and powdered pecans. Mix well
in a separate bowl mash your banana first, then add your eggs one at a time, and coconut oil. Ensure the coconut oil is liquid, but not hot
add dry mixture to wet and mix well until combined, then transfer to your cooking vessel of choice
bake the banana bread for 45-50 minutes if using a loaf pan, less if using the mini cupcake moulds
if using the loaf pan, cover with tin foil until the 40 minute mark
let the bread cool in the pan completely before slicing
ENJOY
if you intend to freeze some, do it right away and it will keep extremely well.
Bonus!
Georgia enjoys this banana bread with a bit of whipped cream on the side.
Tatua Whip Cream is at ratio for her - with just 0.7 g of carbs per serving (8g).
Comments