CrossFit Dark Horse

I know, I know, everyone is making banana bread these days… and I know, I know, how could this one be any good without gluten or sugar? … but I swear this recipe you simply MUST try! I promise you will not be disappointed.  I’ve been making a new loaf about every other day since the gym closed for the stay at home order. There’s just something about it that makes Coach Mike eat half of it as his “side dish” with dinner.

My mom has been making this banana bread recipe for years, and when I needed something new to do with the girls during the quarantine, I thought baking might be a fun thing for them to start helping with and this bread is not only delicious, it’s so easy, two toddlers can do it.

Now this is mom’s recipe, which means it’s got gluten and sugar in it and we make it a habit to avoid those things in this house. So I made a few simple changes to the recipe and it still comes out so good not even the most discerning banana bread connoisseur would be able to tell the difference between mom’s version and mine.  It’s moist, naturally sweet, and hits the spot just right.

The recipe is basically mixing your wet ingredients together, mixing your dry ones together, then combining them into one delicious batter.  Easy peasy, so let’s get to it!

Ingredients

–  1/2 Cup Butter, Softened (plus some for greasing the pan)

– 1 Cup Monkfruit

– 2 Eggs

– 1 Cup Ripe Bananas, Mashed (about 2 Large ones)

– 1/2 Cup Sour Cream

– 1.5 Cups (+ 1/8 cup) Flour, Sifted (we use this GF Flour)

– 2. tsp Baking Soda

– 3.5 tsp Guar Gum (we use this Guar Gum)

– 1/2 tsp Salt

– 1 tsp Vanilla

– 1 tbsp Organic Vanilla Stevia (we use this Stevia)

– 1/2 Cup Walnuts, Chopped

– Aluminum Loaf Pan (yes, this matters. ALOT!)  I LOVE this pan in particular

– 4 Bowls

>>And  I highly recommend getting this oven thermometer because I promise your oven lies to you just like mine does to me.  I’ve probably made about 30 loaves in the last 3 months, so I’ve become a bit of an expert in making a kick ass gluten free sugar free banana bread.  SO trust me when I say the oven temperature totally matters.  As a point of reference, to get my oven to 325 I actually set it to 310 and THEN WAIT 20 minutes after it says it’s heated…  Get the $5 oven thermometer.  It’s so worth it. Baking is basically a science project you eat, so you’ve got to have the right tools and you’ve got to be precise in your process!

Lastly, don’t let the longer-than-usual descriptions below scare you off from this recipe.  It really is quite easy.  I just feel compelled to share the tips and tricks I’ve learned from my 30+ loaves so you’re gluten free bread comes out as delicious as mine!

Step 1: Prepare
Make sure you’ve got bananas that are nice and ripe that have browned.  If they don’t have any brown on the peel, the bread won’t come out as good.  There’s almost no such thing as too ripe when it comes to bananas for banana bread.  You want them mushy; the browner the better.

You also want to pull a stick of butter out of the fridge well before you start so it is nice and soft and mashes easily.  I usually pull a stick out in the morning so when I get around to making the bread it is ready to go. I think the professionals will tell you that you are supposed to bake with unsalted butter, but I usually just use salted because it’s what I have most often.

Preheat your oven to 325 before you do anything.  And once the oven says it is ready, wait another 20 minutes before putting your loaf in.

At the beginning of my gluten free loaf making experience they kept coming out mushy/undercooked on the inside and burnt on the outside.  So I did some research and discovered that this was due to 1) oven temp being wrong, 2) cook time being too short, 3) non-aluminum pan, and 4) needing to add guar gum since I removed the gluten, which gives the bread structure.   I’ve discovered that the dark metal pans and the glass pans will not bake a good banana bread.  You must use an aluminum pan  otherwise it won’t bake correctly.  It won’t cook through and burn on the  edges.

Step 2: Combine Dry Ingredients
Sift your flour, salt, guar gum, and baking soda together in a bowl.

The only drag about this recipe is that it dirties several bowls.

So I have a deal with Mike where he does the dishes after I make the bread.

Step 3:  Mash Butter & Monkfruit
Place your butter in a large bowl and mash it into a thin creamy layer with a fork.

Add the Monkfruit to the butter and mix until they are totally blended.

Step 4:  Mix Bananas And Other Wet Ingredients
In a separate bowl, mash two bananas with a fork and measure to see if you need to mash a third to get 1 cup of mashed bananas.  I’ve made this bread with bananas mashed by hand with a fork and whipped together with an immersion blender.  I think the texture of the bread is better when you do it by hand.

:: Note:: To measure your ingredients correctly, fill your measuring cup above the rim, then level it off with a fork.   To reduce the dirty dish pile up, I use a single 1/4 cup measuring cup and 1/2 teaspoon for the whole recipe.

Add sour cream, vanilla, and stevia to the 1 cup of bananas and stir well until completely combined.

In a small separate bowl, beat your two eggs together, then mix them into your banana-sour cream-vanilla-stevia mixture.

Side Note 1:  If you mash your bananas and have a little excess, resist the temptation to just throw it in.  It’ll make the bread too wet.

Side Note 2:  I’m not sure if the Vanilla Stevia is essential to the recipe or not, but I use it and the one we use doesn’t have that unpleasant strange taste stevia sometimes does. I actually really love the one linked above.

I add it to anything I’d like to be sweet like oatmeal, plain yogurt, and smoothies.

Step 5: Add It All Together
Combine the mashed bananas mixture with the mashed butter mixture.

Then add the dry ingredient bowl to the wet mixture  and stir together just until it’s combined.

Be careful not to over mix it. I’ll actually stop before all the flour disappears and add the walnuts at this point since more mixing will happen to fold the nuts in.

Step 6:  Walnuts
Obviously the walnuts are optional, but I think they go really nicely in this recipe and I’d encourage you to keep them in!  If walnuts are a go, now’s the time to take 2 handfuls and place them on a cutting board to chop up into small-ish pieces.

Then fold them (aka carefully stir) into the batter and you’re ready to bake!

:: Note::  If the batter looks really wet at this point sprinkle a touch more flour in and stir. Just a sprinkle though, not too much! It should not look runny anywhere.

Step 7:  Time to Bake!
Take whatever you prefer to use to grease your pan, and do that now.

I usually take a slice of butter that we keep at room temp in a butter dish and spread it around the inside of the pan with my fingers.

Be sure to coat the whole inside surface of the pan and then add your batter.

Now you’re ready to bake!  Place the pan in the middle of your oven and bake for about an hour.  I usually bake my loaf for 1 hour 20 minutes, but you should check yours at an hour to see if more time is needed.  Just take a toothpick and stick it in a few spots to see if it comes out clean.  If so, your bread is done.  If batter comes out on the stick, bake for another 5 minutes and re-check.  Make these checks as quick as possible to avoid letting all the hot air out of the oven or letting your loaf cool off before it’s done.

Step 8:  Time To Dig In!
Once your bread passes the toothpick test, pull it out of the oven and let it cool.

To remove the bread, just  turn it upside down into your hand and it will fall right out.

Then get yourself a nice warm slice of Devaney banana bread!  When it’s hot out of the oven, I spread a little butter on top of my slice and ooouuu ouuuu is that good!

Macros:
Although this banana bread is gluten free and sugar free, I don’t know if this would be considered “macro friendly.” However,  I do track what I eat and manage to budget a slice or two each day so I calculated the macros on a loaf one time to be as follows:

114g slice =  23 carbs, 16 fat, and 4 protein

More Information

In case you want even more tips and tricks about banana bread (or need to troubleshoot issues like I did), check out this webpage.  It has everything you’d ever want to know about banana bread.