This low-sugar, gluten-free banana bread will be your new favorite breakfast

January 24, 2020 at 04:40PM by CWC

If you stick to a gluten-free diet—whether it’s by choice or because you have Celiac disease—you already know buying a gluten-free pastry at a café or bakery is a bit of a gamble. Because the structure of most baked goods comes from gluten (as lover of The Great British Baking Show would know), GF substitutes can often end up chalky or brick-like. Which is a downer, because who doesn’t want to enjoy birthday cake or muffins or banana bread without feeling some serious gluten FOMO?

Well, we’ve got you covered on the banana bread front, at least. Bless chefs Jenny Dorsey and Mia Rigden, the hosts of Well+Good’s show Alt-Baking Bootcamp, for experimenting enough with different alt-flours and ingredients to create a recipe that tastes moist, buttery, and sweet.

The secret? Using a mix of almond and coconut flours to mimic the texture of a traditional banana bread. “Coconut flour and almond flour mix rather well to counterbalance the kind of drying effect that coconut flour has, and almond flour introduces that fattiness that you want for that nice, soft crumb in your baked goods,” says Dorsey.

The two alt-flours also add flavor and sweetness, sans refined sugar. (The bananas and maple syrup obviously help in this department, too.) They also add in cinnamon, which not only punches up the flavor but helps balance blood sugar levels to potentially mitigate any post-snack sugar crash. Read: It’s healthy *and* delicious.

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Intrigued, gluten-free eaters? The recipe awaits.

Watch the video to see how to make a gluten-free banana bread, then keep scrolling for the recipe.

Gluten-free banana bread

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients
3 bananas (2 overripe with brown spots, 1 fresh)
1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
2 organic pasture raised eggs
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp ghee (or grass-fed butter, or coconut oil)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350°F, and line a 9-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Line the middle, letting the edges of the paper fall over the edge of the pan, and grease the sides with butter or ghee for easy removal.

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2. Lightly mash two overripe bananas and add to bowl of a standing mixing. Add ghee or butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and eggs, and mix until thoroughly combined.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients.

4. Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix until incorporated. Turn off mixer and use a spatula to give the dough a good stir.

5. Place dough in loaf pan. The dough is thick, so use a spatula to even it out.

6. Cut your fresh banana in half lengthwise and press into the top of the dough.

7. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

8. When finished, use the edges of the parchment paper to lift the banana bread out of pan.

The only thing this recipe could benefit from? Some chocolate chips stirred into the batter right before baking. But maybe that’s just me…

If you’ve just started eating gluten-free, here are some tips. And join Well+Good’s Cook With Us Facebook community for more healthy recipe inspo.

Author Emily Laurence | Well and Good
Selected by CWC