Try this sweet keto lemon bread for a healthy breakfast treat or a sugar free dessert.
With bold lemon flavor, each bite MELTS in your mouth.
The classic lemon bread can be completely dairy free, gluten free, oil free, low carb, paleo, and vegan, with no coconut flour required.
Leftovers freeze well too! Just pull a few slices out of the freezer to enjoy any time you’re craving that iced Starbucks lemon loaf taste, without all the flour and sugar.
The recipe was adapted from my Keto Pumpkin Bread
Sugar Free Lemon Dessert
I first made the keto lemon bread when my parents came to visit a few months ago.
Although neither of them is on a keto diet, they are trying to watch how many white or refined carbs they consume. My mother’s favorite food is Oreo cookies, and my father could easily eat two cups of rice with dinner.
Enter this low carb lemon recipe that calls for almond flour instead of wheat flour.
It’s also free of corn syrup, guar gum, xanthan gum, buttermilk, palm oil, and soybean oil, which are all ingredients you’ll find in the Starbucks lemon loaf recipe.
We loved the recipe’s flavor and dense texture that reminded us of lemon pound cake.
You can also make Keto Lemon Bars
How To Make Keto Lemon Bread
Assemble the ingredients, and grease a 9×5 loaf pan or line it with parchment paper.
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine all of the gluten free lemon bread ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir until well mixed.
Smooth the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake the lemon cake bread on the oven’s center rack for one hour. After this time, it should be cooked through but still moist and dense, because low carb bread recipes have a denser and more fudgy texture than traditional lemon bread recipes.
If you leave the keto lemon loaf to cool completely before going around the sides of the baking pan with a knife and then popping it onto a plate, I found this protects against cracking or breaking in half.
For a glazed lemon bread, see the frosting recipe ideas below.
The dessert can be left out overnight, loosely covered in paper towels or a cloth. After that, store any remaining leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to five days. Or slice and freeze leftover almond flour lemon bread for a month or two.
Readers also like this Almond Flour Banana Bread
Keto Lemon Loaf Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make the recipe: lemon juice and lemon zest, almond flour, sweetener, baking powder, salt, eggs or flax eggs, and yogurt or coconut cream.
The lemon zest is important, because it adds a ton of lemon flavor, so do be sure to include it when making the lemon bread.
To make lemon zest, wash your lemon and use either a zester or grater to shred the lemon peel. Or peel the fruit with a vegetable peeler, then finely dice the skin with a sharp knife.
Almond flour is the only flour I’ve tried and recommend with this recipe. You can of course experiment with other flours at your own risk and with the knowledge that some of the measurements might need to be changed in order for the recipe to work.
For example, I imagine that trying to substitute coconut flour for almond meal would mean you’d at least need to add extra liquid to the recipe.
Plain yogurt or coconut cream add moisture to the keto lemon bread. Use an unsweetened yogurt for a sugar free recipe. Vegan yogurt works too.
For a lemon bread without yogurt, use an equal amount of either coconut cream or the thick part at the top of a can of coconut milk.
Lemon Bread Frosting Ideas
You can enjoy this keto lemon bread unfrosted or with sugar free frosting, melted butter or coconut butter, packaged cream cheese or homemade Vegan Cream Cheese.
Or ice the sugar free lemon bread with half a cup of powdered sugar or powdered erythritol whisked into a glaze with one tablespoon milk of choice or lemon juice and an optional eighth of a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.
Watch the keto lemon bread recipe video, above
Keto Lemon Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour (for nut free, try this Vegan Lemon Bread)
- 1/3 cup granulated sweetener (for sugar free, I like Lakanto)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup plain yogurt or coconut cream
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 3 eggs or flax eggs
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
Instructions
- Grease a 9×5 loaf pan or line it with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 325 F. Stir all ingredients until smooth. Pour into the pan. Bake for 50 minutes. I found that letting the keto lemon bread cool completely before going around the sides with a knife and popping out the loaf will ensure it doesn't break, because the recipe is super moist and soft! The lemon bread can be loosely covered and left out overnight. Or refrigerate leftovers up to 5 days, or slice and freeze for up to 2 months. Do be sure to include the lemon zest, as it adds so much of the lemon flavor.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Keto Breakfast Ideas
This looks amazing but I am not a fan of sweeteners. Could I replace it with either maple syrup, raw cane sugar, brown sugar, etc. And how much would you recommend? Thanks so much!
I’ve made Katie’s copycat Starbucks lemon loaf many times in the past along with other recipes and always use regular sugar and it turns out delicious every time.
Would substituting Greek yogurt work the same?
Yes that is fine to use for the yogurt.
Hi, yes! 1/3 cup granulated sweetener can be regular sugar or cane sugar, same amount 🙂
What about maple syrup?
you can use maple syrup, but it will take longer to bake
Hi
I just made this and the batter was very thick. More of a dough. Will it be ok? It’s in the oven and I’m hoping for the best. I double checked the amounts so I have no idea what happened
What type of yogurt did you use for the recipe?
We have made this multiple times, but if we remember correctly the yogurt in the video is trader joes unsweetened cashew.
Is the yogurt full fat, nonfat, low fat?
Any of those will work!
Could you use Greek yogurt?
Yes!
Can I substitute ground almonds instead of almond flour? I’m in the U.K. Thanks
Thank you!
Hi Katie, I can’t wait to try this! Have you ever made it with Meyer lemons?
Hmm we have not but that sounds like a fun idea!
Hi Sharyn. I made it with Meyers and added lemon essential oil as well and it turned out wonderful.
By using cane would the carb a amount change? By how much
Hi, yes it will be more if you sub cane sugar.
recipe for the icing that goes on top of the lemon bread?
Where is the icing recipe for the lemon loaf?
Hi, it is in this post above, right above the video under the heading “Lemon Bread Frosting Ideas.”
This is amazing! Couldnt wait for it to cool completely. Yep, it cracked! But who cares it was delicious! I used lemon extract in the glaze, oh my! Thank you, I will be trying your muffins next!
Thank you so much for trying it! We think you are the first one to make it 🙂
Could you make t with regular floùr? Same amount?
Hi! Here is the flour version: https://lett-trim.today/vegan-lemon-bread-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I’m kind of freaking out because I just put it in the oven then when I watched the VIDEO – there are NO eggs added to the recipe and the batter looks way thicker! In other words – your video does not match your recipe which calls for THREE eggs!!
I hope I didn’t waste my time, as my batter looked loose with 3 eggs.
Please be careful – that’s quite a difference.
Hi Maggie, there are two options and the video goes with the flax egg version. Both versions work 🙂
Wow, NO NEED TO FREAK OUT MAGGIE. Drama Queen! 🙄
Can you use flavored yogurt, (lemon, coconut)?
Absolutely, you can!
I love this lemon bread! It was easy to make and very good! I will definitely make it again!
Thank you for trying it!
Do you think I could use sour cream or softened butter instead of yogurt or coconut cream? I don’t have coconut cream and I’m not a yogurt eater. Even though you didn’t make it with sour cream or butter – just wondering. Thanks for your opinion. Recipe looks delish!!
I haven’t tried so don’t know about taste; but texture wise, sour cream should be fine.
I used yogurt to replace sour cream in a recipe recently and it came out good. I had no sour cream and the internet suggested the best substitute for sour cream was yogurt.
Super good and easy. I took a few shortcuts. Mixed almond flour and baking powder plus dried ginger (Trader Joe’s packet) and the tea from a Macha tea bag (TJs again) as dry mix and then used the Vitamix to combine the Coconut Creme, one whole Meyer lemon, and three eggs. I added that to the dry mixture and did the rest as instructed. We do not eat sugar or sugar subs, but we didn’t miss them at all.
Love it and can’t wait to fiddle around with the mixture again. First time using almond flour. Love it too. Signed, Happy Cook.
Your version sounds wonderful!
You don’t not eat sugar or sugar or sugar substitutes all?? In intrigued!
I tried making this today and I found that it didn’t taste lemony enough and it wasn’t as yellow as yours. I will try to make it again and possibly add more lemon zest and lemon juice.
I’d say add a little yellow food coloring or smidgon of tumeric for the yellow color.
Do you have nutritional information for this recipe?
Hi! Just go to the nutrition facts link at the bottom of the recipe under the ingredients/instructions 🙂
This was delicious! I’m a newbie with almond flour recipes and this one was easy to follow and surprisingly delicious!