Banana Bread

A few of my friends recently became gluten free. One of them is Emily, who introduced me to the amazing gluten free granola recipe I posted a few days ago. Anyway, she called a few times asking for my banana bread recipe. I looked and looked and couldn't find it. I knew that I had a fire (meaning, totally rad) zucchini bread recipe that I adapted from my grandmother's recipe and posted (before I had my own blog) on the (amazing) BijaBody blog. I sent that to her to tide her over. However, that did nothing for the brown bananas that we both had lying on our counter-tops.

I adapted several recipes with no luck (either too dry and crumbly, totally obscure ingredients or super fat-camp ingredients). 

Today, I made a loaf that I think is wonderful. Light and fluffy, moist and not crumbly at all. I plan to take it camping this weekend, and possibly make banana bread french toast. :)

First, you need to make this flour blend. You'll only use 1 1/2 cups of the blend for the banana bread recipe below. Store the extra in an air-tight container for future use. 



Amy's GF Oat Flour Blend:

1 1/2 cups oat flour
1 cup tapioca flour (sometimes called tapioca starch, same same.)
1 1/2 cups potato starch or corn starch (or, some combination of the two, whatever you've got on hand- as long as it equals 1 1/2 cups total)

Mix with your hand until combined. 

Ingredients: 

2 large eggs, at room temperature. *important. make sure they are room temp.
3/4 cups of sugar (I use Wholesome Sweetners Non-GMO Organic Sugar, Evaporated Cane Juice)
1 cup mashed (or three small) over-ripe bananas
1/3 cup 0% fat Greek Yogurt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups Amy's GF Oat Flour Blend (recipe above)
1 tsp. xanthan gum (important: this is your binder. Bob's Red Mill has this in bags- it is spendy but you don't need much. A little will last a long time.)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
*optional, but worth it: 1 tbsp. ground flax seed (if you only have whole you can grind it in a coffee grinder- provides a great nutty flavor and amazing health benefits) and 1 tbsp. whole flax seeds. They provide an unexpected crunch.
*1/2 cup of add-ins (either dark raisins or other dried fruit, roughly chopped nuts or chocolate chips.)

Process:

1. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Prepare a loaf pan by greasing it with butter and sprinkling it with fine rice flour. (or whatever GF flour you have.)

2. In an electric mixer, beat the room temp. eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and beat until well blended. Add the mashed banana, Greek yogurt and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together (by hand) the oat flour blend, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, ground flax seed and cinnamon. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat the flour mixture into the liquid ingredients until they are well blended and the batter thickens slightly. Stir in the extras if you are using them- (whole flax seed and the dried fruit or chopped nuts or chocolate chips.)

4. Spread evenly into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean- 45-50 minutes. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes. Remove the bread form the pans and cool completely on the wire rack. 

5. Slice and serve. Top with Greek yogurt and honey, honey butter or just serve it up plain. 

Enjoy!