Banana bread experimentation

Being gluten intolerant and also eating low sugar, I have had cravings for one of my old favorites — banana bread. I bought a gluten free brand from the health food store, and it was tooth achingly sweet. We have a regular morning tea at work. I usually just stare at the food longingly, while everyone else hoes in. So, I decided enough! I will trial a few different recipes, and taste test them on the unsuspecting victims at work. I thought they would be a good trial as they are sugar and processed food lovers. If they liked anything, then I knew it wasn’t only just tuned to my low sugar taste buds.

My favorite is a banana bread from the Civilized Caveman. Its sweet from the banana’s so does not need much more. It uses coconut flour and almond flour, no added sugar. So it is gluten free, paleo, goodness. I adapted this recipe from Civilized Caveman changed it to use coconut oil, and added a couple of tablespoons of rice malt syrup just to sweeten it up a little.

Paleo Banana Bread

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 10 mins
Serves: 8

Gluten free
Dairy free with coconut oil option
Low refined sugar

Ingredients:

4 bananas, (2 1/2 cups mashed or 575 grams) (they can be not very ripe bananas)
4 eggs
1/2 cup almond butter (140 grams) (or cashew, sunflower seed, macadamia nut, etc butter)
4 tablespoons grass-fed butter, melted (can substitute coconut oil)
2 tablespoons rice malt syrup
1/2 cup coconut flour (75 grams)(or almond flour, macadamia nut meal, etc)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder (gluten free)
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of sea salt
coconut flakes or chopped nuts to sprinkle

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
Combine your bananas, eggs, and nut butter, rice malt syrup and grass-fed butter or coconut oil in a food processor and mix well (if using a mixing bowl you need a good hand-mixer)
Once all of your ingredients are blended, add in your coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and sea salt and mix lightly
Grease a 9×5 glass loaf pan with a fat of your choice (I used grass-fed butter). If you use a metal pan it will probably bake in 35-40 minutes so start checking at 35 to ensure the middle stays moist
Pour in your batter and spread it evenly throughout
Sprinkle coconut flakes or crushed nuts, pecans are great, over the top to give it a fancy bakery look.
Place in your preheated oven and bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
Remove from oven and flip your bread out onto a cooling rack
Slice and serve

If you want to make these into muffins, use the same recipe and for mini muffins bake approximately 25 mins and normal size muffins 30-35 minutes.

Tip: if you like chunks of banana in your bread, keep half a banana to the side, and chop into chunks. throw into food processor at the end a give it a quick blitz so they combine but are not too blended.