Sunday, October 2, 2011

Grain/Gluten-Free Vegan Banana Bread with Cinnamon Topping


Oh yummy banana bread!  A long time ago I invented a banana bread, but it wasn't vegan - only grain-free.  Well, the other night I came home and the bananas were almost on the rotten side - they were really getting on the brown/black side.  My husband hates when I over buy food and when some things end up turning (I'm working on this issue) so I said .... Noooooooo, don't throw that out!  I decided I was going to try banana bread.  I searched through the folders of my food creations and found my old recipe.  Sure enough - my old flour blend with almonds was at the top of the list (bummer - I was out of almonds) followed by milk and eggs. Well, I was determined to make this happen!  I invented a new flour blend off the cuff and the milk could be replaced by almond milk and the eggs by egg replacer.  I would have to tweak things a bit, but I have to do that all the time.  This was moist and the texture inside had small pockets, just like bread.  Everyone was loving this one! Score!

Grain/Gluten-Free Vegan Banana Bread
2 cups Grain/Gluten-Free Vegan Flour Blend #1
1/3 cup Vanilla Almond Milk (I haven't tried the unsweetened yet)
2 Over Ripe Bananas
1/4 cup Grapeseed Oil
1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer + 2 Tablespoons Water (1 egg)
1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons Herb Stop's Aluminum-Free Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Unrefined Salt (I used Herb Stop's Fine Sel Gris)

Cinnamon Topping
1/3 cup Grain/Gluten-Free Vegan Flour Blend #1
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Herb Stop's Vietnamese Cinnamon
2 Tbsp Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening (Palm Oil --- NOT SOY)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease the bottoms and sides of mini-loaf pan (mine has 8 loaves - which is perfect for this recipe)
In a small bowl, add all the cinnamon topping ingredients.  Using a pastry blender, cut in the shortening until well incorporated.  Set aside.
In a small dish mix egg replacer and water until completely dissolved, set aside.
In a medium bowl add bananas and mash very well.  Add almond milk, oil and mix well.  Add remaining ingredients, including egg replacer.  Mix until only a couple lumps remain - those should be the bananas.
Pour batter, in equal amounts, into mini loaf pans.  This recipe will make 8 mini loaves.  Generously sprinkle topping over the breads.  Bake for 15 minutes and check with a tooth pick to make sure it's fully cooked.  If the bread needs more time, only add 2 minutes at a time.  The cinnamon topping can burn and become bitter if cooked too long.
fresh out of the oven...mmmmmmmm


nice and moist

perfect loaf!

Grain/Gluten-Free Vegan "Flour" Blend #1

Throughout the years of being grain-free I've come up with a bazillion "flour" recipes.  Many of them were amazing, many of them complete failures.  This recipe started off with almond flour and was pretty good, but if you baked anything a long time it would taste bitter - yuck!  So, one night I was wanting to try to invent a banana bread  recipe and as I was pre-mixing the "flour" I realized that I didn't have almond flour!  I had already been busy in the kitchen making cashew butter, pesto, etc. and I didn't feel like playing with the vita-mix again.  As I rummaged through my cabinets I saw an unopened bag of Garbanzo/Fava Flour.  I've made breads with straight garbanzo and I didn't want to have that flavor in the banana bread - I thought the Fava might tone it down.

Turns out the banana bread was unbelievably delicious (recipe to come)!  I haven't had the opportunity to use this "flour" blend in anything else yet, but I'm sure it's going to be great for breads.  There were beautiful pockets, the bread rose nicely and there wasn't any grit.  I'm excited!

Grain/Gluten-Free Vegan "Flour" Blend #1
1 1/2 cup + 2/3 cup Potato Starch
1/2 cup Garbanzo/Fava Flour
1/3 cup Tapioca Flour
1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum

Mix all ingredients very well and store in a container for future use.