A high-protein brownie bread made with banana, Greek yoghurt and egg whites, with a two-ingredient frosting on top. Ten slices at 115 calories and 12 g of protein each.
Baked in a loaf tin, 30 to 35 minutes.
Key points
- 12 g protein per slice. At 115 calories.
- No flour, no oil. Yoghurt and banana instead.
- Makes 10 slices. Loaf tin, 30 to 35 minutes.
- Two-ingredient frosting. Yoghurt and the drink powder.
- Cool it fully before frosting, or it melts off.
What you'll need
Loaf
- 200 g ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 large egg, whisked
- 120 ml liquid egg whites (or 2 extra eggs)
- 100 g chocolate plant protein powder, or almond meal
- 150 g Greek yoghurt, or yoghurt of choice
- 30 g hot chocolate drink powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
Frosting
- 200 g Greek yoghurt or cream cheese
- 20 g hot chocolate drink powder
- Optional: raspberries, for topping
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- In a large bowl, add the mashed banana, protein powder, hot chocolate powder, baking soda and baking powder. Stir to combine.
- Fold through the yoghurt and egg or egg whites, and whisk thoroughly.
- Pour the batter into a lined loaf tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
- Allow to cool.
- To make the frosting, whisk together the hot chocolate powder and yoghurt or cream cheese until it reaches a buttercream consistency. Spread across the cooled loaf, top with raspberries, and slice into 10.
Macros
Per slice, across 10 slices: 115 calories, 12 g protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 4 g fat.
Why is this so low in calories for the protein?
Because there is no flour, no butter and no oil in it. That is unusual for a baked loaf and it is the reason the numbers look the way they do.
The structure comes from eggs and egg whites, the moisture from banana and yoghurt, and the bulk from protein powder. Every one of those is high in protein or low in fat, or both. A standard banana bread would carry two to three times the calories per slice.
The trade-off is texture. This is denser and more fudgy than a conventional loaf, closer to a baked protein pudding than a cake. That is not a fault, it is what the ingredient list produces.
Why did mine come out rubbery?
Overbaked, almost certainly. With 100 g of protein powder and a lot of egg white, this recipe has a narrow window.
- Check at 30 minutes. A skewer should come out with moist crumbs, not clean.
- Egg whites toughen fast. They set firm and then keep tightening, which is what makes an overbaked protein loaf squeaky.
- It firms up as it cools. Judge it at room temperature, not straight from the oven.
If you consistently overshoot, drop the oven to 170C and bake for slightly longer. A gentler bake is more forgiving.
Can I use almond meal instead of protein powder?
Yes, the recipe explicitly allows it, and it changes the loaf considerably.
Almond meal gives a softer, moister crumb and is far more forgiving of overbaking. What you lose is the protein: the macros above assume protein powder, and an almond meal version will be higher in fat and lower in protein per slice.
It is the better choice if you want something that eats like cake. Protein powder is the better choice if the 12 g per slice is the point.
Why does the frosting need the loaf to be cold?
Because it is yoghurt, and yoghurt on a warm loaf turns to liquid and runs off.
Completely cool means completely, not lukewarm. If you are impatient, thirty minutes in the fridge after it has stopped steaming will do it.
Cream cheese holds up better than yoghurt if you want a frosting that sits thicker, and it makes the loaf richer. Yoghurt keeps the calories down.
Can I make it dairy free?
Yes, with substitutions in both parts. Use a coconut or soy yoghurt in the loaf, a thick coconut yoghurt in the frosting, and check your hot chocolate powder for milk solids, which many contain.
Thick, Greek-style plant yoghurts work far better than the thin ones. A runny yoghurt makes both the batter and the frosting too loose.
Which protein powder should I use?
A chocolate plant protein matches the hot chocolate base. Note the quantity: 100 g is a lot, roughly three scoops, so the flavour of your powder will come through clearly.
Whey works but bakes drier and tighter than plant protein, so reduce the bake time by five minutes if you use it.
100% Vegan Protein is our house-brand plant option, and the plant protein range has the alternatives.
How long does it keep?
- Fridge. Up to five days. It must be refrigerated because of the yoghurt frosting.
- Freezer. Up to three months. Freeze unfrosted, in slices.
- Not the bench. The yoghurt in both the loaf and the frosting rules that out.
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