Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Banana Bread Experiment (and can you believe I am actually posting?!)

Ok here's the deal. If I don't write this yummy recipe down I am going to forget it. I know this because I always tell myself "hey, that was goooo-ood! Write that down so you don't forget how to make it!" And then I don't, so I do (forget). So without further ado I give you:

Banana Bread Which Tastes Normal But Is Made With Flax, Coconut Flour, Coconut oil, and Maple Syrup
hmmm... Too long?
Ok how about:

Yummy Experimental Banana Bread

First I have to confess that I based this banana bread on THIS RECIPE. As a side note I LOVE her recipes. They are all simple, wholesome, and make everyone's tummy happy which is not always easy to do around here. Also, this is not a gluten free recipe.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
1/2 rounded teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (estimated, but then I always estimate salt) sea salt


2 Large mashed ripe bananas (recipe calls for 1 cup, I had more than this but I wanted more because of the coconut flour)
Generous 1/4 cup maple syrup (spilled over a bit, recipe calls for 1/3 cup honey but I am finding myself cutting back on the sugar in most recipes these days)
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 tablespoon ground flax plus 3 tablespoons warm water mixed together before everything else and let sit for at least 10min
Raisins

Preheat oven to 350 F
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl (note, it helps to have the ingredients room temperature so that the coconut oil doesn't try to solidify. I did not do this but mixed the coconut oil with the room temp banana, vanilla, and flax before mixing in my cold eggs and maple syrup. It worked out just fine)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until all the dry ingredients are well moistened.
Stir in raisins (as many as you like, I used about 1/2 cup or so)
Spread into a buttered loaf pan and bake for 50 to 60 min or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Consistency is important! Last time I experimented with coconut flour and flax in a recipe like this the batter was runny and was poured rather than spread into the pan. This resulted in a loaf that was way too moist and didn't raise much. Although it was thoroughly cooked and cake-like it had an odd, almost watery quality that wasn't very appealing. Like pound cake soaked in water. It also spoiled very quickly because it was so moist. This time the batter was thick and on the drier side. I was afraid it was too dry but it rose nicely and came out perfectly. I want to keep tweaking this recipe to increase the coconut flour content, eventually to 100% coconut flour to make it wheat free. But for now I am very very happy with this.

4 comments:

  1. My question for YOU is (why did I capitalize "you"?) this: where do you buy your fancy ingredients around here? Do they carry that stuff at Meijer? Do you order it online?

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  2. Mostly order on line from Amazon and Tropical Traditions off the top of my head.

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  3. Looks delicious!!! Does coconut flour really stretch farther than wheat flour? I keep reading its expensive but lasts sooooo long

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    1. Yes, coconut flour is odd because it absorbs so much more liquid than regular flour. the recipe for chocolate brownies on the back of the coconut flour package only calls for 1/2 cup flour for an 8X8 pan of brownies and 6 (!) eggs. They are really yummy too!

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