Bananas at market
By Cat, March 29. 2018 (photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons)
I love banana bread and don’t have a problem with gluten, but this recipe sounds so good with nutmeg and cardamom spices, I decided I would give it a try and share some with my gluten-free friends.
The result is interesting; not as sweet as regular banana bread, but has a nice, moist texture, and the hint of spices adds to its appeal. If you want it sweeter, I recommend using ⅛ – ¼ tsp powdered stevia extract instead of increasing the amount of liquid stevia extract, to avoid making the batter too moist.
- See also: 1. Muffins, Quickbreads, etc. Menu; 2. Stevia (About); 3. Baking Soda and Baking Powder (About, Part 1); 4. Coconut, Almond, and other Gluten-Free Flours;
- Other sites: Green Med Info article about flaxseeds (2).
Spiced Banana Bread, Gluten Free
This recipe is adapted from one by Dr. Alan Christianson (see below for a copy of his original recipe, since it is not available online). It makes one loaf. See below the recipes for testing.
I’d like to test the following options:
- Using almond meal for part of the coconut flour (see 5/1/19 testing);
- Adding chopped walnuts or pecans;
- Using muffin tins rather than a loaf pan;
- Using “green” bananas (lower glycemic value)
Notes about Ingredients
Flaxseeds: This is a great way to add these seeds to your diet (see Flax Seeds: (70 Reasons to Eat More Flax Seeds on Green Med Info (2) for more on this) These seeds are easily oxidized (producing toxic free-radicals), so grind them just before using. Don’t use commercially ground seeds. I also don’t recommend pre-soaking flaxseed (as is good for most other seeds) because they produce a slimy mess, and they don’t have much bad lectins to neutralize (the main reason for presoaking).
Baking soda: This is used to leaven quick breads when there is an acidic ingredient (like fruit juice, yogurt or buttermilk) in the batter. When there is no acidic ingredient, cream of tartar is added (or baking powder is used instead of baking soda). Ripe bananas are slightly acidic (ph of 6.5), but probably not enough to fully activate the soda, so I add ¼ tsp cream of tartar. See Baking Soda and Baking Powder (About, Part 1) for more.
Liquid stevia extract: It is quite dark and darkens the batter quite a bit. Also, it is not as consistent between brands regarding its level of sweetness. I don’t know which brand Dr. C. used, but I use Wisdom Natural, SweetLeaf, Whole Leaf Stevia Concentrate (iHerb code WDN-12481). See also my Stevia (About) article for more.
Coconut flour is what is left of shredded coconut meat after the milk has been extracted. It loves to absorb water – in fact, it can absorb its same volume of liquid (¼ cup in this recipe). Ground flax seeds also take up water to make a slimy gruel.
Almond meal (not used in Dr C’s original recipe) is finely ground almonds, sometimes called almond flour. My second testing (see below) used almond meal for part of the coconut flour. This works OK but cannot taste the almonds, so if you want the nutty flavor, it would be better to add chopped or slivered almonds, or other chopped nuts to the batter.
Coconut milk (optional ingredient): The only liquid in the original recipe besides the liquid stevia extract is from the bananas and the eggs, and that amount of liquid can vary significantly depending on size of eggs and ripeness of banana. Since both the ground flax seeds and coconut flour will absorb all the liquid they can, it is possible the batter would be too dry. If that is the case, add some coconut milk (or filtered water), 1 tsp at a time until desired consistency is reached, but be careful – you may need to bake it longer.
Ingredients & Equipment
- Wet Ingredients
- 1¼ cups mashed ripe Organic banana (about 3 medium)
- 5 large eggs from local, pastured hens
- ¼ cup melted virgin coconut oil, plus more for greasing pan (or use butter for the pan)
- ½ tsp liquid stevia extract (or ⅛ – ¼ tsp powdered stevia extract)
- Dry Ingredients:
- ¼ cup arrowroot powder
- ¼ cup freshly-ground flaxseeds
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- ½ tsp unrefined sea salt
- ¾ cup coconut flour (or ½ cup coconut flour and ¼ cup almond meal)
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- Equipment
- 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pan
- 1 large, 1 medium mixing bowls
- whisk or fork
- hand-held (electric) mixer
- cooling rack
Method
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat loaf pan with coconut oil or butter (from pastured dairy animals).
- Mash bananas in larger mixing bowls, to make 1¼ cups. Add the remaining wet ingredients and mix with an electric mixer. Set aside.
- Sift together the arrowroot, baking soda and salt into smaller mixing bowl; whisk in coconut flour (and almond meal, if using) and spices.
- Pour dry ingredients into bowl of banana mix and beat them together into a batter. If batter is too thick, add a little coconut milk, 1 tsp at a time.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for approximately 50 minutes. Cool for about 20 minutes in the pan, then loosen the sides with a knife, and turn over onto a wired rack, allowing to cool completely.
Dr Christianson’s original recipe
This list of ingredients is copied directly from his email. \I include this here for reference, in case I have trouble with my version, above.
- Dry Ingredients:
- ¾ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot powder
- ¼ cup ground golden flaxseeds
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- Wet Ingredients:
- 5 large organic eggs
- 1 ¼ cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium)
- ¼ cup melted virgin coconut oil, plus more for greasing the pan
- ½ tsp. liquid stevia
Method
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat loaf pan with coconut oil or butter (from pastured dairy animals).
- Mash bananas in bowl or blender, to make 1¼ cups; transfer to mixing bowl. Add the remaining wet ingredients and mix with an electric mixer. Set aside.
- Sift together the arrowroot, baking soda and salt into the other mixing bowl; whisk in coconut flour and spices.
- Add dry ingredients to bowl of banana mix, and fold them together into a batter, using your mixer. If batter is too thick, add a little coconut milk, 1 tsp at a time; if too thin, add coconut flour 1 tsp at a time.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for approximately 50 minutes. Cool for about 20 minutes in the pan, then loosen the sides with a knife, and turn over onto a wired rack, allowing to cool completely.
Testing
First test, 4/17/18:
Made as written (including the 1/4 tsp cream of tarter to activate the baking soda), then mixed in 1 tsp water before pouring into loaf pan. Dr C’s recipe has you add the bulky banana mix to the tiny amount of dry ingredients, but traditionally, you do the reverse, adding the dry ingredients to the wet. And in this case, because the tiny amount of dry ingredients (about 1 cup total) is much less than the bulk of the banana/egg mix (more than 3 cups total), some of the dry ingredients might not get mixed in and remain at bottom of the bowl. So adding them at the top of the wet ingredients ensures all get mixed in. I’ve adjusted the recipe accordingly.
Regarding adding coconut milk (or other liquid): the only liquid in the original recipe besides the liquid stevia extract is from the bananas and the eggs, and that amount of liquid can vary significantly depending on size of eggs and ripeness of banana. Since the coconut flour will absorb its same volume of water (1/4 cup in this case), it is possible the batter would be too dry. I added 1 tsp filtered water and decided that was enough after mixing into the batter.
Set my timer for 50 minutes, but after 10 minutes it stopped ticking and I’m not sure how long it had been stopped before I noticed the problem; hopefully it won’t be under-baked or over-baked. I reset the timer to 35 minutes when I discovered the problem. Tested when timer dinged; decided to give it another 5 minutes. Then removed to cool 20 min before removing from loaf pan to cooling rack. It sank a bit in the middle after the 20 minutes, likely because of too much moisture. It also has the color of dark coffee.
Result: Nice texture, not too sweet with good banana flavor. It did fall in the middle because not quite done there, so could have baked a bit longer (or perhaps not added the water). I miss taste of nuts, so next time I will add some chopped nuts, or try using almond meal instead of part of the coconut flour.
Second test 4/1/18, with almond meal:
This time made as before, including the cream of tartar, but used ¼ cup almond meal and ½ cup coconut flour (instead of ¾ cup coconut flour). Mashed bananas in blender, then added 2 eggs one at a time to blender to make it easier to pour out into bowl. Added the other 3 eggs to mixture in bowl, and mixed with electric mixer. Then added dry ingredients and used “fold” setting on my electric mixer to combine. If anything the mix is too moist so added 1 tsp coconut flour. Baked 50 min but perhaps a bit too long. Cooled as before (20 min in pan, then removed to rack). Result: It is less moist than the earlier batch, likely from baking too long, or from that extra tsp coconut flour, but has good flavor similar to last batch. Can’t taste the almonds, so if want a nutty flavor, better to add chopped nuts.
References:
- email from Dr. Alan Christianson
- Green Med Info: Flax Seeds: (70 Reasons to Eat More Flax Seeds)
