Gluten Free Recipes: Banana Bread

By Ashlyn Keve

At the beginning of the school year my family found out two crucial facts that will affect our lives. With my mother being gluten intolerant and me being diagnosed with an automotive disease that gluten can affect, we had to find a different way to live. 

While we were struggling to adjust to our new predicament, I found a recipe for banana bread on the Food Network website, which I changed to become gluten-free. Being gluten-free is not as awful as it may sound, and this banana bread is proof of that.

For this recipe you will need eight tablespoons or one whole stick of room temperature unsalted butter, two large eggs, one cup of granulated sugar, one tablespoon of milk. One teaspoon of each salt, baking soda, baking powder, and ground cinnamon. Lastly, you’ll need ripe bananas then finally two cups of almond flour.

While making this bread over the past month, I have experimented with many different non-gluten flours, but almond flour has given the best results. 

The first step is to preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. You do not have to butter or spray non-stick unless you plan on attempting to take it out of the loaf pan. If you do use a non-stick spray, double-check the ingredients, for some sprays have gluten in them.

Next, you will get a large bowl to cream the sugar and room temperature butter together. Once they are well mixed, add the eggs in one at a time.

Once you finish that you will unpeel and mash the bananas in a small bowl. After they are mashed, you will mix in the cinnamon and milk.

Then in another large or medium bowl, mix the rest of the dry ingredients, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour.

From then on, add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients as well as the creamed sugar and butter. Be careful not to overmix; just stir until you can no longer see the flour.

Finally, you can pour the batter into the loaf pan. Without gluten, the bread will not rise much, so you will not have to worry about pouring too much, I usually fill it 3/4 of the way. 

Then bake it for an hour while standing by to check on it. When the time’s up, insert a toothpick into the bread at the center, and if it comes out clean then the bread is done. If it doesn’t come out clean, put it back in the oven for 10 minutes, checking continuously.

This recipe also works for making muffins, which is what I did, and the only difference is putting them into a muffin sheet instead of a loaf pan. I also sprinkled powdered sugar on the top.