Last week, on a random rainy afternoon, I was craving a warm, moist, ridiculously delicious piece of banana nut bread. But I had little interest in getting into my car and driving somewhere, only to get mediocre, high-calorie bread that probably wouldn’t satisfy my perfectly picky palate anyway. I rummaged through my pantry, and set out to experiment with a bunch of ingredients to find the perfect gluten-/dairy-/sugar-free recipe. Though sourced from a variety of recipes online, and with some trial and error, I’ve created a wonderful go-to recipe that I know I’ll make over and over again. It’s warm. It’s moist. And above all, it’s ridiculously delicious.
Ingredients:
1½ cups of almond meal flour [can be bought from any health food store]* ½ cup of coconut flour [can be bought from any health food store] 1½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon finely-milled sea salt ½ teaspoon nutmeg 4 ripe bananas** 4 tablespoons of olive oil or vegetable oil 6 eggs 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans, depending on your choice*If you’re allergic to nuts, I’ve heard about rice flour being substituted for almond meal flour, but I haven’t tried it myself.
**Make sure the bananas are super ripe, because this is the source of sweetness in the bread and the riper the bananas, the sweeter your bread will be. If the bananas aren’t super ripe or you tend to favor a very sugary banana bread, add in agave nectar for additional sweetness.
Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F /175°C.
2. Mix the almond meal flour, coconut flour, baking soda, sea salt, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, mash up the bananas until smooth. Add in the oil and eggs, one at a time. Mix until the batter is smooth.
4. Pour the banana mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix until there’s no visible chunks. The batter will be thick, so try to make it as smooth as possible.
5. Add chopped walnuts/pecans and mix well.
7. Pour the mixture into a bread pan, lined with parchment paper + brushed with olive oil/cooking spray.
8. Bake for 50 minutes or until the top starts to brown.
I understand there might be some debate on this issue, but let me clarify that I don’t consider eggs to be dairy. I define dairy in the sense of allergies, which generally pertain to milk or milk-based products (cheese, cream, butter, etc.).