Gluten Free & Vegan Banana Bread

After a few weeks of terrible digestive pain, I decided it was time to try cutting gluten out of my diet again. There's an excellent gluten-free bakery near me, but buying their delicious bread is an expensive habit. So, this week, I decided to try baking something gluten free...and, just for the fun of it...vegan.

I chose banana bread for 2 main reasons: it seemed harder to mess up than a yeast bread and there's a banana bread recipe in one of my cookbooks I've always wanted to try.

So, I dug out Blue Moon Soup by Gary Goss and found the recipe for banana bread, which is found below. The substitutions I made were:

flour = Bob's Red Mill All purpose gluten-free flour

1 egg = 1 Tbsp. ground flaxmeal soaked for 3 minutes in 3 Tbsp. water

I also added 3/4 tsp. xanthum gum to this recipe, since it was recommended to do so on the bag of flour.

The verdict: I like banana bread. I did not like that I could taste the garbanzo flour. Next time, I will try adding more banana and either some vanilla or coconut extract. I may also try a different gluten-free flour. The bread was a little bit crumbly, but not too bad for my first gluten-free recipe. I mean, after all, I ate the entire loaf.

Annabanana Bread

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter or shortening at room temp (I used vegetable shortening)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 bananas, mashed (1 cup)

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a mixing bowl, sift the flour with the baking soda and salt.

3. In another bowl, gradually add the sugar to the shortening, mixing well.

4. Mix the eggs and bananas.

5. In a third bowl, mix the milk and lemon juice.

6. In alternating turns, add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the banana mixture, staring and ending with the flour mixture.

7. Stir in the nuts.

8. Grease the bottom of a bread pan, and pour in the batter.

9. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until the bread springs back when lightly touched in the center.

10. Remove the bread from the pan to a plat and let cool before serving.