Gluten Free Banana Bread

When people think of eating healthy, they probably don't envision themselves biting into a warm sweet slice of banana bread with their morning cup of coffee.  In fact it's something people can only dream of while trying to eat clean. For most people, eating clean means having to kiss goodbye all things delicious.  But this Banana Bread makes a pretty strong case against that belief.

This recipe is made with simple and wholesome ingredients without compromising taste.  All you need is: Coconut flour, salt, baking powder, eggs, bananas, honey, vanilla, walnuts, and dark chocolate chips  (optional).  When you find a store bought or coffee shop banana bread with pronounceable ingredients like this recipe, please let me know because I have yet to find one.

The texture is a little different than normal breads, but it's a good different.  The moist, yet crumbly texture comes from the Coconut Flour. Baking with coconut flour (or any gluten free flour for that matter) is much different than baking with wheat flours.  This recipe believe it or not only used 1/3 of a cup of coconut flour.  It's quite deceiving because Coconut flour is extremely absorbent due to it's high fiber content. When you bake with Gluten Free flours, don't worry if you have a huge bowl of wet ingredients and a tiny bowl of dry. That means you're doing it right!

I got my inspiration for the bread from Living Healthy With Chocolate which had a banana muffin recipe.  Here's how I made mine:

1.  In a small bowl mix 1/3 c of coconut flour, 1/4 tsp of baking powder, and a 1/2 tsp of salt. That's it for the dry.

2. In a medium bowl mash two bananas.  The mix in 3 beaten eggs, 2 tbsp of honey, and 3 tbsp of melted coconut oil, and a tsp of vanilla.

3.  At this point, you're probably thinking that you batter will turn out more like pudding than bread batter but don't be deceived by the wet to dry ingredient ratio. Slowly add in the dry mixture to the medium bowl. It will absorb tons of the moisture and you'll be left with the perfect bread dough.

4. Now, add mix-ins of your choice! I added 60% cacao dark chocolate chips and coarsely chopped walnuts.  Some other things I would suggest are shredded coconut, or macadamia nuts.  Now that your dough is complete, you're gonna wanna have a taste. Resist the urge and just take my word for it that the dough taste great... 

5. Get smallest loaf pan you can find, spray it with cooking spray, and evenly spread the batter in it.  Pop it in a 375 oven for about 25 minutes, or until it's golden brown. As you can see, my bread came out a little short since it doesn't rise very much. If you prefer a thicker loaf, I suggest doubling the recipe (don't forget to increase the baking time if you do so).  Otherwise, you could use this same recipe and scoop the batter into a muffin pan and it would make about 6 muffins (don't forget to decrease the baking time).

There you have it folks, a healthy, hearty banana bread! Share it with family and friends and make sure to brag about the fact that there are no refined flours or sugars.  They always find that amusing... Enjoy!