Banana & Blueberry Bread

Posted by thesensitivefoodie on October 17, 2015 in Dairy Free, Egg Free, Gluten Free, Meat Free Dishes, Nut Free | 4 Comments

  

I generally don’t bake. Baking doesn’t suit my “let’s just add this see how it goes” personality and since I can’t have gluten, eggs or most dairy I just find baking too hard to get right. But there was a banana situation that needed to be dealt with, and I am seriously using any excuse to procrastinate about starting my planned spring cleaning while my husband is overseas for the weekend.

  

Rather surprisingly, for a change, my free styling baking method worked! When I looked in the oven at around the 35 min mark and saw that it had risen to rather epic proportions, I didn’t hold much hope. But while this isn’t pretty, it is hands down the best banana & blueberry bread I’ve had in ages, super light, soft & moist (I really hate that word, but can’t think of another). 

  
I have tried both flax & chia as egg substitutes before with not awesome results, but this time I decided to add both together, it seems to have worked really well. 

I also usually add a tspn of baking powder to store bought gluten free flour to help it rise more, and I’ve never had it rise like this before, not sure what happened there but it is a good accident. It won’t win a beauty pageant, but is is so light it doesn’t taste like its gluten free. And look! It actually holds together really well

   
It isn’t overly sweet, I haven’t had any refined sugar or sugar substitutes in a month, so I didn’t want this to be too sweet. I’ve lost my taste for sweet things, I considered not adding any sweetner since the bananas are already sweet, but decided that a treat wouldn’t hurt. 

So I have awesome banana bread, and I’ve written a blog post, but I’ve not managed to do any spring cleaning today, in fact, now I just have a messy kitchen to add to the list. Oh well, there is still Sunday : )

Suitable for: gluten, dairy, egg, nut & refined sugar free diets. Also vegan & vegetarian friendly 

 
Ingredients

• 3 large overripe banana’s mashed
• 1 pinned blueberries 
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxmeal
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 125ml water or dairy free milk of choice. Add more slowly is too thick
• 2 cups gluten free self raising flour (I used white wings brand)
• 1 tspn gluten free baking powder
• 2 tspn cinnamon
• 1/2 tspn ground sea salt
• 1/2 cup maple syrup (or honey) use 3/4 cup if you want it sweeter, I don’t like it too sweet. 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. In a small bowl, add the flaxmeal, chia seeds & water. It will be thick, its ok, mix well and then put into the fridge for 15 mins
3. In a large bowl add all the ingredients and then gently mix until well combined, don’t over mix. 
4. Line a loaf pan with baking paper, pour in the mixture and flatten out the top. 
5. Pop in the oven for 40 mins, check with a skewer to make sure it’s cooked through, if not pop it back in the oven and keep checking. Cover with alfoil if getting too dark on the top. 
6. Then let it cool on a rack before slicing.