Chocolate Banana Bread

You may not know that I have been going gluten-free for about a month now.  While I haven't been diagnosed with anything, it is likely that the gluten has been causing (or at least contributing to) my thyroid problems as well as digestion problems.  So I've tried to cut it out.  Needless to say, I have been miserable, miss my foods and haven't seen a difference.

A few days ago I hit up my bulk barn and bought a bunch of different flours that are gluten free.  I love baking, and as I've come to realize, baking gluten free is definitely not the same.  Substitutions don't work and you need several different ingredients to mimic flour and gluten.  Today was my first attempt at gluten free baking.  I've had these ripening bananas sitting on my counter and banana muffins and bread are kinda my thing, so I was determined to keep it as my thing.

I have this book called Nourishing Meals so I decided to work with one of their recipes.

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup teff flour

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot powder (I did about half and half)

6 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

2 tbsp ground flax seeds

1/4 cup warm water

1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 5-6 for me)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted coconut oil (or any oil really)

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Optional:

chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.

3. In a separate (large) mixing bowl, add the ground flax and warm water; whisk together so the flax doesn't clump up.  Then add the remaining wet ingredients and whisk together.

4. Pour the wet ingredients in to the dry and mix together with a large wooden spoon.  Fold in your optional ingredients above (I did both!).  Pour batter into your bread pan.  Bake for about 45 minutes.  Cool for 20 minutes and then remove from pan and continue to cool on a wire rack.

My little one helped me with the baking and had a blast.  We also enjoyed licking the batter!  Surprisingly that batter didn't look all that much different from other batters I've worked with.  All my reading online caused me to think it wouldn't look "normal" but it did; maybe it was a little thicker than I'm used to. I probably kept the loaf in for about 50 minutes, but it could have used another 5-10 more as the middle still seemed a little moist.  Since it was my first time, and the batter is dark, I didn't want it to turn out too dry or hard.

The loaf turned out amazing!  You would never know that there wasn't flour in it.  The cocoa adds a richness to it that is almost fudgey or like a brownie!  It is definitely a hit in my house and my banana bread loving friends!

Chocolate chip Banana Bread

So tomorrow is the last day of the Mother Goose program I participate in with my little girl. This means it is a potluck as well. The easy answer would be to pick something up at the grocery store, but I remembered kinda late and didn't want to head out after she was sleeping. And tomorrow might be as hectic as today, so after my darling daughter was sound asleep, I decided to do some baking (even though all I wanted to do was crash on the couch!)

I always have some ripened bananas sitting in the freezer, so banana muffins or bread are always an easy go to. I always microwave the frozen bananas to thaw them quickly. And I found that they mash much easier and mix into the batter nicely.

Muffins take longer as you have to put them into the tins and most likely do a couple of rounds, so banana bread was the obvious choice - until I realized that the recipe I normally use has nuts in it and tomorrow's dish has to be nut-free.

So here is the alternative - a new recipe to try that I hope turns out. It's not always a good thing trying something new that you are bringing to a bunch of people you don't know very well. That's why my hubby and I will taste test this and hope I don't have to make a grocery run tomorrow!

INGREDIENTS

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
4 bananas, very ripe, mashed (thawed if you were using frozen!)
2 tablespoons ricotta mixed with 1 tablespoon each milk and lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (more/less to your taste)

DIRECTIONS

Set oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan; set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside. Beat sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.

Drizzle in oil. Add mashed bananas, ricotta mixture, and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients and chips.

Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for about an 1 hour.

The final product. It took just over an hour to bake fully.

It turned out nice and moist and with good flavor. Let's hope the moms at Mother Goose like it as much as my husband and I did!