Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1 c. sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
3 over-ripe bananas (better previously frozen & thawed)
1 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ c. rice flour
1 ½ c. gluten-free AP flour (optional: add 2 tbsp. coconut flour to ½ c. measure, top with AP flour)
1 tsp. cinnamon
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. xanthan gum
1 c. pecan pieces
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans using oil and paper towel. Size foil to pans.
2. Cream butter and sugar together in large mixing bowl starting at low speed and cranking up to medium once butter comes to a paste-like consistency. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients with a fork or whisk and set aside.
3. Beat eggs, bananas, milk, and extract into creamed mixture until smooth, again starting at a lower speed. Add dry mixture all at once and beat until just combined.
4. Fold pecans in with a rubber spatula and divide batter between loaf pans. Level batter with rubber spatula, then top pans with foil. Bake about 40-45 minutes at 350°.
5. Remove foil after initial bake period, and bake another 20-30 minutes at 350° until top crust browns and loaf begins to pull away from sides of the pan.
6. Allow bread to cool in pans on heat-safe surface (stovetop, cooling rack, trivet, etc.) for at least 20 minutes before attempting to de-pan. Remove loaves from pans and let cool completely on cooling rack before serving. Enjoy with a glass of milk or cup of coffee.
So as you can see, it’s composed the same way basically any quick bread or cookie is: cream fat and sugar, add wet ingredients, barely mix in dry ingredients until incorporated, bake, cool, serve. You can adjust this recipe for pumpkin, carrots, apples, or zucchini instead of bananas, walnuts instead of pecans, cocoa instead of part of the flour, whatever. You can top it off with some cream cheese frosting for a decadent dessert, or eat it straight for breakfast.
Now there’s one instruction that most will find difficult to follow: allow to cool before serving. This step is crucial if you want your bread to taste as good as it possibly can. During mixing with wet ingredients and baking, the sugar crystals break down into smaller crystals, and if eaten before the crystals have a chance to grow during cooling, the bread won’t taste its very best. This is because the shapes of these crystals determine how they’re perceived by our taste buds, and if they aren’t the right shape, they don’t actually taste sweet. This is also why sweet tea doesn’t taste very sweet until it’s had time to get cold in the fridge. Fine, no, you don’t have to wait until it’s completely cool, but don’t cut into it until it’s mostly cool. It can still be a little warm.
I hope you guys enjoy this gluten-free banana nut bread recipe! Leave your thoughts in a comment below, or get in touch with me directly by filling out the form on the contact page.
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