Healthy Chocolate Chip Carrot Cake Bread
Published 2/13/2020
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
This Healthy Chocolate Chip Carrot Cake Loaf is ready in an hour and made with 100% whole wheat flour, shredded carrots, walnuts, chocolate chips, and yummy warm spices. You won’t find a more delicious carrot bread on the internet.
We Love Carrot Cake!
Carrot cake oh carrot cake, oh how I love the carrot cake.
If I had a choice, I’d choose carrot cake every time over any other kind of cake. I love the moistness (hate this word), the spicy flavor combination, and the cream cheese frosting.
I’m sure you’re like WTF Lee, this recipe doesn’t have frosting. I know I know, I had to make the executive decision to ditch the frosting when we added chocolate chips. It had to be one or the other.
Carrot Bread Made Healthier
This carrot cake bread tastes like a combination of chocolate chip banana bread and carrot cake. I guess you could call it banana carrot bread (with chocolate chips, of course)?! And good news for you, we took some steps to make it better-for-you!
Sweetener: We used mashed banana and maple syrup for the sweetener. The shredded carrots and chocolate chips help out, too. If you’re not a big fan of banana, feel free to applesauce or another mashed fruit.
Fat: Instead of using a full 1/4 cup of coconut oil (which is what we would normally do), we subbed out some for nonfat Greek yogurt to lighten things up. I love using Greek in bread because it gives the recipe a hint of tang and a ton of moistness without the fat.
How have I already used the word moist more than once in this post?
Flour: We’re big fans of white whole wheat flour because it’s lighter than normal whole wheat flour and perfect for healthy baking! We do NOT recommend subbing out a grain-free flour as it would change the composition of the entire recipe.
How to grate carrots
If you are wondering how to shred a carrot (mysterious, right?), we used…a cheese grater.
I’m totally that weirdo that owns multiple cheese grater because #1 we love cheese and #2, we shred a lot of veggies. Here’s a good one if you’re in the market.
Pro tip: If you really want the carrots to stick out, we recommend using a larger grate. However, if you want to try and hide the carrots in your bread for the kiddos, you can use a smaller grate size.
More Carrot Cake Recipes
Healthy Carrot Bread Recipe
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1 medium size banana, mashed
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup plain, unsweetened almond milk
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
Dry Ingredients
- 1.5 cups white whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups finely grated carrots, packed*
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and spray a standard-size loaf pan with cooking spray.
- Start with the wet ingredients. In a medium/large size mixing bowl, mash a banana until there are minimal to no lumps, then add the rest of the wet ingredients to the bowl (except for the coconut oil). Mix well.
- In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Once combined, add the melted coconut oil to the batter and mix again.
- Transfer batter into bread pan and then sprinkle on some additional chocolate chips on top.
- Bake at 350ºF for 38-42 minutes.
- Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from bread pan.
Tips & Notes
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Don’t forget to tag your posts on social media with the hashtag #fitfoodiefinds, we’d love to see what you’re up to!
What can I substitute for coconut oil – veg oil?
Followed the recipe and instructions as mentioned.. but it just didn’t cook in the inside
The cake didn’t cook at all in the indide
Hi, trying it for the 2nd time after the 1st time it didn’t cook in the inside, it was very soggy. The 2nd time too it was still undone when a knife was inserted, at the time and temperature mentioned in the recipe. Have not altered the ingredients
Do e have to put the banana? If we dont will the cake be dry?
You can try swapping for applesauce!
Can I use chocolate almond milk for the almond milk?
If you want! It will change the flavor!
If I add chocolate protein powder, what would the ratio be to the flour? Going to make this tonight!
Hi! I haven’t tried this recipe with protein powder, but I would do 1/4 cup protein powder and then remove a 1/4 cup of flour. You may need to add more liquid just because protein powder is so absorbant!
Carrot cake has to be one of my top three favorite cake flavors ever! Combine it with something like banana bread, and you have a SERIOUS winner. The addition of chocolate chips probably make this loaf addictive–I would eat all of it in one day!
Yum! I love carrot cake to! Could i sub applesauce for the banana? Not a fan of banana….would you say 1\2 cup? Thanks
Yes you can! And yes, I’d do about 1/2 cup!
Can we use Almond or coconut flour instead of the whole wheat flour. If so- how much do we use?
Unfortunately, you can not! The conversion of flours would not be 1:1.
What can I sub for the yogurt? Looking for recipes for a friend who recently found out she can’t have any kind of dairy and I’m trying to find her a good carrot cake/loaf like this. Any thoughts? Thanks!
You could try more banana or applesauce instead!