Playing around

with making some sweets for the sweeties.  Managed some delicious banana muffins last week, tried my hand at a carrot cake for Easter dessert (a bit over-baked, so will try again-too carroty for the kids but the mama liked it), and an ‘awesome’ (per the kids) banana bread.

When I first started baking gluten free (GF), I was living in Austin, TX. – elevation of approx. 541 ft.  I am now in Colorado, just outside of Boulder, elevation 4979 ft.   Sooo, after thinking I had things down pat, the move taught me that I sure didn’t.  Different ovens and different altitudes mean different humidity levels, different timing and trying again to get things ‘just right’.   And my live-in food critics certainly let me know when they are, and aren’t!  (I forgot to mention the cinnamon cupcakes I attempted that wound up being used for doggie treats once they are dried out and hardened up enough).  I’m finding that breads and muffins are pretty do-able, but making a good cake/cupcake with the limits we have going for us is a bit more difficult.  But we will persevere.  I’ve only just started on the sweets part of this journey.  Children (and mama) cannot live by bread alone.

Here’s my recipe for Banana Bread (no nuts).  I hope you enjoy it.

Grandma’s Banana Bread

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C Amaranth flour
• 1/2 C Sorghum flour
• 1-3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 egg (room temperature)
• 1/2 C coconut milk
• 1/8 C coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
• 2 Tbsp agave nectar (or to taste)
• 1 ripe banana

Directions:  Whisk the dry ingredients together.  In separate bowl, mix wet ingredients well, including the banana.  Add the dry ingredients and mix well with mixer.  Pour into  a greased and floured small loaf pan.  Bake for approx. 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Let cool a bit before removing from pan.  Continue to cool on rack.  Slice and enjoy!

This is a recipe for a small loaf, but you can surely double it for a larger loaf and add nuts for a banana-nut loaf.   I’m sure this will also bake up great in a muffin pan.  It turned out to be very moist, so I will probably play some more with it to make it more bread-like.  Or maybe not since the kids really liked it as it is.  We’ll see.

We use coconut milk a lot, but you can also use regular dairy milk or other milk substitute.  For sugar users, you can use about 1-3/4 Tbsp of regular sugar instead of the agave.  You can also substitute the flours for whatever gluten-free flour you have on hand.  This is something I decided to try because I had a ripe banana staring at me and my previous cupcake experiment went down the wrong street and the kids really wanted a treat.  So play…..

I will try to get photos posted at some point.  It’s just that they get eaten before I get a chance to take a pic.

Love and light, Angela