Have ripe bananas? What ever shall you do? Hmmm… Smash them on your face into a facemask? Put them in eggs? Oh! I know, how about in a foot bath? Noooo, silly. Those all could be possibilities, however kind of nasty. But one delicious option you can do with bananas is make banana bread. Now that sounds good! With this banana bread, I had to say to myself, quite a few times “do not eat the whole loaf”. It worked! Three days later and we still have a loaf left.  Banana bread is a MUST when you have ripe bananas, but it’s what you put in it that can make a world of a difference.

You’ll find recipes for banana bread that have lots of sugar added (plus with the sugar in those really ripe bananas! Sugar over load) You’ll also find white flour, which converted in our bodies becomes sugar. So basically all you are eating is sugar bread. Not healthy for you at all.

“But how do I make a healthy banana bread?”, you ask. Well first, you get rid of the cup or so of sugar. Toss that out the window! Actually, don’t that will be bad for the wildlife and nature. Just get rid of it, some how. We actually don’t have any granulated sugar in our house. Only coconut sugar, honey, coconut nectar, and maple syrup.

Second, lets make the bread Gluten Free. “But isn’t that hard? Won’t that make the bread taste wierd and have a bad texture?” No, if you do it right, with the right gluten free flours you wont have any problem. In fact, most of the time (depending on the gf flour) you can do a 1:1 ratio in recipes that call for wheat flour. Flours I like to use are: almond flour, coconut flour (can have a dense consistancy if not done right), any nut flour really, oat flour, sorghum flour, and at times brown rice flour. Oat and brown rice flour can completely replace any wheat flours in a recipe.

Third, lets add some unsweeteneded applesauce shall we? “What will this do?” Adding applesauce gives it moisture and helps with the texture. I usually add applesauce inplace of recipes that call for butter (since I rarely eat dairy).

Now another thing I add to bread recipes are eggs. I’ve tried SO many times to make GF breads without eggs and I’ve failed 80% of the time. Eggs help the breads rise, adds “fluff”, and doesn’t leave them dense. In this recipe you can add up to three eggs. Which makes it even more healthier for you with the added healthy fats and omegas which are crucial for our overall health. If you are vegan or avoiding eggs, you can try 1 TB ground flax meal mixed with 2 tablespoons water (this equals 1 egg, so double it for 2 eggs, etc.) I haven’t tried this for this recipe, but it should turn out decent.

So, you’ve learned a little bit about what makes this bread healthy and some tips of making gluten free breads. You ready for the recipe? Here it is!

Makes 3 small loaves

INGREDIENTS: 

• 1 cup organic mashed bananas (about 2 large ripe bananas)
• 1/2 cup organic unsweetened applesauce (homemade is the best!)
• 1/3 cup organic raw honey
• 2-3 organic eggs (2-3 because you can add an extra egg if you would like)
• 1 1/4 cup organic oat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon himilayan sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup finely chopped organic sprouted walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all ingredients together (except walnuts) until you have a pretty smooth batter. Now taste it, serisouly. The batter tastes AMAZING! I didn’t want to bake it.
2. Fold in the walnuts and let the batter sit
3. Now grease 3 small loaf pans
4. Pour the batter evenly into the loaf pans. They should be about half full.
5. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.
6. Let them cool for about 20 minutes (this is important because when you cut into them after they come out of the oven, they will look under cooked)
7. This banana bread is a more moist banana bread, so don’t worry if it looks like it should be cooked more. That’s how it should be!
8. Now slice, and enjoy with loved ones! Banana bread is so good with melted cheese on it. (If I was eating dairy, I would be devouring banana bread and cheese all day).

A girl who loves the challenge of baking gluten free,

-emma