Banana Bread

We bought bananas with good intentions of healthy eating, only to live almost exclusively on soup and popcorn (this may or may not be exaggeration). They turned brown a little more each day in the hot, Australian heat, until Pete held them up with a fake sad face and said, “Oh no, I guess you’ll have to make a banana cake!” That brings us to this post, and this recipe.

This isn’t your typical home-made banana bread, nor is it as exciting as café-style slices. It is a little too plain for most people’s tastes to eat entirely on its own, but pairs extremely well with ice-cream and hazelnut or chocolate spread (or, indulgently, both!) This is my go-to super-lazy banana bread recipe that I prepare when there’s not much time on the clock, and fortunately only requires one bowl and the loaf-tin (hurray for smaller wash-ups!)

It is a tried and tested recipe, both the ovo-vegetarian and vegan adaptions.

The Ingredients:

3 large over-ripe bananas

1 ½ cups of self-raising gluten-free flour

½ cup of buckwheat flour

¾ cup of sugar

1 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp cinnamon

½ - 1 cup of soymilk

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 eggs, or 1 tbsp + 1 tsp egg replacer mixed with ½ cup of soymilk

Handful of pecans or walnuts, chopped

 

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius, and butter, flour, or line your loaf-tin.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas until they are a thick paste.

Add the flours, sugar, xantham gum and cinnamon, and stir to combine.

Mix in the soymilk (starting with ½ cup), the eggs or replacer, and the maple syrup. The mixture should be thick and only slightly runny, so test and add more soymilk if required.

Pour into the prepared loaf tin, and sprinkle the nuts over the top.

Bake for 32 minutes. It should have risen considerably (but this will droop by the time it cools).

Leave to cool in the pan for five minutes before gently tipping it onto a cake-cooler.

This bread is best eaten slightly warm, and reheats well in the microwave at about 5 seconds per slice. I'm thinking of making some cinnamon butter to go along with it for tomorrow's breakfast, but perhaps that is a little too luxurious for breakky...