Gluten Free Banana Bread

Do you have any really ripe bananas that have been hanging in your fruit basket a bit to long? As in are they getting really black in colour? Looking so dead that you almost want to throw them away? This happened to me the other night, yes it was 9pm. I had a sweet crave after my best friend made me a butternut-squash soup. Delicious by the way, I'll have to ask his secret recipe ;) I told him that his bananas are calling for either being cut up and frozen to use for smoothies, or to make a tasty banana bread. Well, as I said earlier I really was craving a warm dessert ;) He looked at me with his million dollar smile and said “you want to bake a cake at this hour”? I replied that the cake would be ready at 9:45pm, he laughed out loud and answered “I don’t think so”. This made me want to make this cake even more to show him how easy and fast it is to make banana cake. Well ok I have to say I did not quite hit the quarter to ten target, however it did not tick over 10pm. I blame the oven for not heating up fast enough ;) easy excuse I know….

Ok let’s get to the late night baking recipe for this juicy, naturally sweet gluten free banana bread.

It was late and all I wanted to do was have a warm piece of cake with my decaf coffee, but I had to get my phone out to write down how I made this late night banana bread. On the left? you can see my notes you can find your ingredients and the amounts!

This cake is so easy to make, all you need is a bowl and a fork!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes

1) Smash the bananas

Mix together

 2) Crack two eggs

3) Add 150g Soy yogurt

4) Add 1 Cup oats and 1.5 Cup Almond Meal

Add baking powder, vanilla powder, salt, brown sugar (refer to notes)

You can mix the liquid and dry ingredients in different bowls, however at that time of day, you do not want wash more dishes, so I just used one bowl, one cup and a fork :) 

Fill the cake form with the batter.  Grease with coconut oil or use parchment paper. Very good idea to sprinkle Hemp seeds ;) Tasty & Healthy and adds a little crunch to the cake.

Oven is preheated at 180 Degrees Celsius. Bake for 40 minutes, then the last 10 minutes bake on 200 degrees Celsius. If you think the cake is not cooked enough, let it bake another 10 minutes, until the top crust turns golden brown.

This unexpected baking session, turned out to be quite a success! The banana bread came out perfectly! Sweetened by the ripe bananas, which were my natural sugars, not needing much brown sugar. No butter, or coconut oil needed, the soy yogurt did the trick by keeping the cake moist and not dry.

If my dear friend would have walnuts in his cupboard and fresh blueberries, well guess what I would probably through them into the batter---You would have a banana, blueberry, walnut GF cake. Or if you love chocolate, why not throw a fair trade, organic packet of Chocolate chips? You can let your imagination fly and really add anything you might think would be tasty. That is the beauty of cooking or baking without a recipe, your mind and inside gut is your success on your plate..and well if you messed up, well at least you know and will not do that mistake again!  

To make this banana bread vegan, replace the eggs with a “chia in water” pudding. From PlenteousVeg.com "Chia seeds work in the exact same way as flax seeds do to replace eggs in vegan baking.  Just mix 1-2 Tbsp of chia seeds with hot water and let it sit a bit before mixing it in with the rest of the ingredients.  Chia seeds (and flax) are also great vegan sources of Omega 3."