Living in South Florida, as a New England transplant, there aren’t many days that give you that “stay inside do nothing become a human slug” feeling. I sometimes miss the fall days when you wake up and it’s cold and raining and somewhat dark still and you just “awwwww yeahhhhh”, turn on Netflix, and fuhgeddaboutit.
BUT I HAD ONE OF THOSE TODAY! I was woken up by a fairly torrential downpour, and found out that it’s supposed to stay cloudy and rainy for the whole day. Weird to get excited about? Yes, probably. However, the great news for you kind people is that means my baking brain is in overdrive! So what’s something that just screams rainy day weekend comfort? Banana bread! Easily one of the simplest recipes I have, and also very misleading because “bread” in this case really means “unfrosted cake”. I’ve modified this slightly to be gluten-free, as I have a friend coming over later to binge watch Spartacus and gossip with and she’s super gluten sensitive. Luckily, as I discovered a few weeks ago, conversion is easy when GF is the only dietary restriction in question – onward to the fun part!
Gluten-Free Banana Bread
INGREDIENTS:
- Unsalted butter, for greasing the pan
- 1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour, plus a few teaspoons for dusting
- 1 tsp xantham gum (if making non GF, use regular AP flour and no XG)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large super ripe bananas, mashed
- optional: confectioner’s sugar for dusting
All of the ingredients, ready to go!
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan, metal or glass – in this case, I used glass.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, xantham gum, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, sugar and mashed bananas together. Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients, making sure to incorporate fully.
‘Nana mixture bowl, flour mixture bowl - Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake centered on the middle rack of the oven for roughly 45-55 minutes (rotating halfway through baking), or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center of the load comes out clean. Move the pan to a cooling rack for 15 minutes, then turn out the bread onto the rack and let cool completely.
- If so desired, dust the loaf with confectioner’s sugar and cut into slices. If you’re not planning to eat an entire loaf of banana bread in one sitting (hey, I won’t judge), the bread can be wrapped in plastic or sealed in a Ziploc bag and kept in the fridge for a week.
And there you have it! A simple comfort food recipe that can be made in the time it takes to watch an episode or two of your favorite show on Netflix. Enjoy, guys!
The War On Fondant 