Banana Bread- Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free

When you have those lonely brown spotted Appaloosa bananas on the counter, do you feel a pang?

My frugal soul cringes just a bit when I have a few bananas that look like these.

I know I could mix up a batch of pancakes, or muffins.
But my long time goal has been a crisp crusted, tender hearted bread that could stand up to a smear of peanut butter.
And I have had failures. Lots of tender crusted and soft center breads.

Maybe part of the problem has been my desire to avoid xanthan and guar gums.

When your husband reacts to both with a response identical to the one he gets when he gets glutened, it’s important.

Doubly so when you realize that there is NO organic xanthan gum and that most is grown on GMO corn.

Perhaps part has been my desire to eliminate the sour cream so prevalent in other inspiration recipes since I’m discovering that dairy is not my friend.
It got so bad that my daughters would plead for muffins instead of another attempt. They would hid the darkening bananas from sight, till I would find them limp and oozing in the bottom of the fruit bowl.

They are hoping for lots more speckled bananas now.

They’ve even learned where Fred Meyer’s puts the marked down ones, hoping I "have" to mix up another loaf of this bread.
Got to love working through a problem recipe.

Save Print

Crunchy crusted and tender hearted, this is the Banana bread I've be striving to make for years. Not damp in the center. A lovely crown atop the brown sugar sweetened center scattered with toasted walnuts. This is the banana bread of my dreams.
Even the girls adore it, but they would add some chocolate chips to it. :)

Ingredients

• 50 grams (⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon) walnuts
• 3 eggs
• 3 bananas- very ripe and speckled with dark spots are the best.
• 70 grams (⅓ cup)olive oil
• 80 grams (½ cup) organic brown sugar
• 115 grams (¾ cup + 1 tablespoon) white flour mix
• 115 grams (¾ cup - 1 tablespoon) ]whole grain flour mix[
• 15 grams (1 tablespoon) baking powder
• 3 grams (½ teaspoon) salt
• 1 grams (½ teaspoon) cinnamon
• 10 grams golden flax seeds -ground to a fine powder
• 5 grams chia seeds- ground to a fine powder
• 2 grams psyllium powder
• 20 grams (2 teaspoons) raw buckwheat flour- ground to a fine powder

Instructions

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees(180 C or gas mark 4)
2. Grease a standard bread pan 8x4x4.
3. Place walnuts onto a cookie sheet in a single layer.
4. Bake for 5-8 minutes or till lightly browned
5. Remove from the pan into a terry cloth towel.
6. Rub the nuts briskly to remove some of the skins on the nuts.
7. Allow to cool.
8. Combine the eggs, bananas and olive oil in a bowl.
9. Beat till the bananas are almost smooth.
10. Add the remaining ingredients except walnuts
11. Beat well to combine
12. Stir in walnuts
13. Pour into prepared pan
14. Bake for 60-70 minutes or till an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 190 or higher.
15. Check the loaf after 40 minutes to see if it is browning too fast
16. If it is, cover loosely with foil.

I’ve discovered that flax seeds, chia seeds, psyllium powder and raw buckwheat flour all have different binding qualities.

It makes sense, they are all different seeds. Each one has a different fat profile, different fiber content.
When used in different proportions, I can manipulate the result.
Ok, so I’m a geek this way.
Just have a great time baking again without the nasty gummy residues.
Enjoy cooking with real food.

The second set of pictures here on the right shows the recipe above without the 20 grams(2 teaspoons) of RAW buckwheat flour.