banana bread
As a child, I remember coming home from school to a house that smelled amazing. My mother was always baking something. Usually homemade bread. It didn’t matter what kind it was. To me, it was like my very own special welcome home surprise – every day. My friends used to make excuses to come over – her baking is THAT good. When I got to college, every so often a package would arrive with delicious banana bread inside. I was the envy of the dorm. A slice of home never tasted so good!
1/2 cup oil (I used softened coconut oil)
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 3/4 cups mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups GF flour
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Cream together oil, agave nectar and eggs. When light and fluffy, add the bananas, cinnamon, and cloves. Blend until bananas are incorporated.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and xanthan gum. Slowly add this to the wet ingredients until smooth. Let sit 10 minutes.
- Pour into loaf pan that has been oiled and lined with parchment paper.
- Bake 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out of center clean.
- Let cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack.
- Try not to slice until completely cooled. Keep refrigerated. For best taste, slice right out of the fridge.
Tags: casein free banana bread, dairy free banana bread, gluten free banana bread, soy free banana bread, sugar free banana bread
[...] I found many. Just as I was endeavoring to combine said recipes into one trial-run recipe, I found this recipe. Hurrah! Success! I’ve found a recipe that meets all my requirements! Off to the kitchen, she [...]
Just made this today and it’s delicious! Very moist!!! My husband even likes it!! Thanks!
Kristen,
You are so welcome – I am thrilled to hear that you liked the banana bread! Hubby’s can be hard to win over sometimes so that’s wonderful that he liked it too.
Thanks for stopping by and letting me know how it turned out – knowing you enjoyed it put such a smile on my face :)
Have a great weekend!
Stephanie
I tried this but found it to be quite dry… I will try to make it more moist.
Probably needs more oil for 2 cups of brown rice flour.
Hi there,
Sorry to hear that it came out dry for you. Did you strictly use brown rice flour (without a starch)?
One suggestion I continue to make is to gently fluff the flour in it’s container (with a whisk or fork) and then spoon it into the 2 cup measure. Otherwise, the flour is compacted and you end up using much more flour than intended. This would be true for any gluten free flour/starch. Before I began measuring this way, my baking results failed to be consistent. Give it a shot and see what you think!
Best regards
Stephanie
Hi again!
Two things:
1. For No Gluten Please–I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour and my bread came out very moist! You may want to check it out :)
2. Stephanie–I’d like to make zucchini bread in the same way but I’m not sure about the conversion of banana to zucchini (since zucchini seems to have a higher water content than bananas). Have you tried this? If not, what would you recommend as far as how much zucchini to use?
Thanks so much!
Kristen
Hi Kristen !
Thanks so much for joining in and responding to No Gluten Please. I used to fiddle with Bob’s Red Mill AP Flour mix quite a bit. I was always happy with the way things came out too.
It is so funny that you are interested in making zucchini bread. That has been on my to do list for a a week or two. With 3 kids at home I keep saying – I AM going to get to that today. And I don’t. Could we extend the day to 48 hours please ?? There is just never enough time ! Anyway, I have a hunch of how to do it. Let me fiddle with this for a day or 2 and I’ll re-post here. Stay tuned!
Thanks so much Kristen for stopping by and leaving a message. I really appreciate it. Have a great day :)
Stephanie
ps- so sorry for the delay in responding. As I was telling Laura, my site was infected with a nasty virus. I simply could not fix it and was locked out of the site for over a week. All better now ! Be in touch :)
Hi Stephanie!
I went ahead and made the zucchini bread and just did equal exchanges of banana to zucchini and it came out just fine for me–I did add a little more agave to it (since the bananas are so sweet) and it seemed to make it more moist but it might have been a little too sweet. Still tasty nonetheless :) I’d love to hear what you come up with though!
Kristen
Kristen,
Thank so much for stopping back by. I appreciate your report on the swap out. I have had my hands full over here with relatives visiting, 2 children starting 2 different schools and a baby that is working on about 7 teeth at once. Seriously, I am embarrassed to admit I haven’t even had one second to give this a try. You won’t hold that against me, will you?
Interestingly, one of my visitors was a Cordon Bleu chef. And, let me tell you, I was picking her brain about all sorts of things. I was making acorn squash soup on Sunday and had this entire crop of zucchini that needed to make its way into bread. But, soup and a (sweet) tea bread was not sounding too appealing to me. So, we collaborated on this savory loaf and it came out beautifully. I know it’s not the recipe you were asking about. So sorry about that. But, I bring it up because if you are in the mood to try something a little bit different as soup “season” approaches, then this loaf is a winner. I need to test it again before I post but please do check back.
Thanks for bearing with me
xo
Stephanie
So delicious and moist!! I added a cup of chocolate chips.
So happy you enjoyed it, Melly! Adding some chocolate chips is a great idea. What is it about the banana/chocolate combination that is SO good ??
All the best for a great week
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie – I can’t eat nuts – what can I substitute for the coconut oil that will yield the same results?
Hi Diane,
I would just use another kind of mild tasting oil, such as grapeseed oil. I am not a huge fan of canola but that could also work. In a crazy twist of fate, we can’t eat coconut anymore either so I’ve been substituting grapeseed oil with fantastic results.
Have a great rest of the week
Stephanie
Hi! Do you think I could swap the eggs out for flax meal egg replacer (1 T flax meal + 3 T water per egg)?
Hi Susie,
Absolutely go ahead and sub with flax. You are right — the correct ratio is 1 T flax seed meal or chia + 3 T hot water. Let stand for 10 minutes or so. And there you have it.
Have a great day,
Stephanie
Great bread! Best gluten free, refined sugar free banana bread recipe by far. I added a few handfuls each of walnuts and chocolate chips and it added that extra deliciousness. Thanks for this great recipe!
Julie,
You are most welcome and thank you kindly – I am thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the banana bread! The addition of walnuts and chocolate sound heavenly. Haven’t made this in while — and now with those two additions you made I’ve developed a hankering :)
Stephanie
This is the best GF banana bread EVER! I added some Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips and it was over the top! My family didn’t even know it was GF! Thank you!!!
Kathy,
Thanks so much for the kind words. I am so glad to hear it was a big hit with your family. Wonderful idea to add a little chocolate into the batter. Chocolate and banana are a divine combination for sure!
xo
Stephanie
I have a question. You don’t specify WHICH gluten-free flour to use. I have coconut and almond flour on hand, will EITHER work? In my experience they’re not interchangeable.
Hi Carissa,
In this particular recipe, I used an all-purpose blend. I’m 99.9% sure it was Authentic Foods all purpose flour – it’s my preference. It’s ground superfine and that makes for a tastier tea bread. Moist and tender with no gritty aftertaste.
This was one of the very first recipes posted on my blog. After the first few months, I came to enjoy playing around with flours and actually preferred making/mixing my own blends (always spelled out on the site) for greater freedom depending on the recipe. Nutritionally, I prefer the more nutrient-sense and higher fiber choices like sorghum, millet and teff. We limit our nut flours because we tend to be a bit sensitive to them.
Almond flour and coconut flour are not interchangeable. Coconut flour requires much more liquid (typically in the form of eggs – sometimes 8-10 per recipe). Almond flour is not unlike regular gluten free flour. If you’re using the Honeyville brand (which tends to be ground more finely and a better all-around-sub than Bob’s Red Mill) most recipes will call for 2 cups. I have never tried almond flour subbed in for the AP flour in this recipe.
I do have a vegan version of this I’ve been working on. We just completed 5 grueling months of construction on our house and our kitchen is finally in! I am hoping to finish testing and have this version up in the next couple of weeks – now that I have an oven! It has a mixture of flours in it – stay tuned for that. In the meantime, let me know if you have any other questions.
Have a good night,
Stephanie