Upon my arrival home last night from my quick trip to Los Angeles, I knew that some baked goods would be in store today after going to this great bakery for lunch before my flight out. It’s pretty hard to find something to eat at a bakery when you can’t have gluten or dairy, but we were low on time, out of options and I was so hungry I would have eaten my own hand at that point. Sorry for the visual! I was literally drooling at all of the different breads they had available. Seriously, they had any kind of bread you can imagine, except gluten free, of course, but thankfully they had some great salad options to hold me over until I got home. While we were waiting to place our order, I kept looking at all of the beautiful desserts they had displayed, and what caught my eye in particular was this loaf of banana bread. It almost looked fake it was so perfect, but considering it contained just about everything I can’t eat, I was left to admire it from a distance. I figured there had to be a way to modify the ingredients, but if you have ever tried store bought gluten free breads, you know that they often end up tasting heavy and dull since gluten free flour just doesn’t have that same ‘spring’ regular bread has. Thankfully, I think I have found a pretty great alternative that is gluten free, dairy free and surprisingly light and fluffy. This recipe can be made into either 24 muffins or 2 loaves of bread, and if I were to redo this, I wouldn’t have used the muffin wrappers since they stick. Best option would be to use a small amount of coconut oil or even Earth Balance to lightly grease the pan. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
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- 2 cups gluten-free all-purpose baking flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 flax ‘eggs’ -1 Tbsp. ground flax seeds to 3 Tbsp. water = 1 egg
- 2 cups mashed ripe bananas (I used about 4 medium)
- 1 cup stevia baking sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/3 cup virgin, unrefined melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup raw walnut halves; chopped
- Pinch of cinnamon (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350F
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate small bowl, mix together the eggs, bananas, sugar, applesauce, oil and vanilla. Add in a pinch of cinnamon (optional). Whisk thoroughly. Add in chopped walnuts
- Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Transfer mixture into lightly greased muffin tins. Muffin wrappers are optional, but not recommended as the batter will stick. Just lightly grease pans before adding batter. Use coconut oil or Earth Balance butter substitute. This recipe can also be separated into 2 loaf pans to make bread.
- Bake at 350° for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before moving muffins or loaves from pans to wire racks.
Marie Bloemendaal
March 3, 2014 at 2:30 pm (10 years ago)Hi – can I use regular eggs instead of flax eggs? Is “baking” stevia different than just regular stevia?
Danielle
March 3, 2014 at 2:33 pm (10 years ago)Hi Marie! Yes, you can use regular eggs, and baking stevia is much different from regular stevia as regular stevia is very intense, and baking stevia is cup for cup measurement with regular sugar.
Danielle
March 3, 2014 at 2:34 pm (10 years ago)I use Stevia in the Raw baking sugar
Marie Bloemendaal
March 4, 2014 at 2:11 pm (10 years ago)thanks…..do I use 4 eggs if it calls for 4 flax eggs? I think I might use Xyla or coconut sugar as I don’t have Stevia.
Danielle
March 4, 2014 at 2:30 pm (10 years ago)I would actually just use 1 full egg instead, and then 1 cup coconut sugar.
Danielle
March 4, 2014 at 2:31 pm (10 years ago)I would also then bake it for 30-40 minutes instead of 40-45
Jennifer
May 23, 2014 at 6:03 pm (10 years ago)Can you use xylitol instead of stevia? and would you need to increase or decrease the amount? Thanks…I’m new to0 lean and clean and totally love your website!
Danielle
May 24, 2014 at 8:27 am (10 years ago)Hi Jennifer! Xylitol will work fine, and the amount used will be the same as the stevia in the raw.