Gluten-Free Banana Bread made with Coconut Flour

Can you imagine life without Banana Bread?  We cannot.  So we, Our Southern Odyssey, created our own grain-free Banana Bread.  Our Banana Bread is very moist and rich in flavor.  We added enough maple syrup to give the bread sweetness without overpowering the other flavors within the Banana Bread.  Sugar like maple syrup or honey should not be added in excess.  A little maple syrup goes a long way in adding flavor.  You do not want to add so much maple syrup to a recipe that that is all you taste.  If you want that you might as well take and drink the maple syrup right out of the bottle.  However, this is something we would not recommend. 

This Banana Bread is dairy-free and almond flour free.  As the Banana Bread cooks in the oven it makes the kitchen smell amazing.  The Banana Bread rises well as it bakes, producing a beautiful loaf of bread.  The bread, also, slices well and makes a great presentation.  

Our Banana Bread is delicious to eat as it is, but it is also great toasted.  Slice the bread about a half inch thick.  Next lay the slices that you want to eat on a baking pan and toast in the oven until the bread is lightly brown.  Then remove the bread from the oven and spread on the toasted banana bread some homemade sprouted pumpkin seed butter.  The recipe as well as the step-by-step guide to our Organic Raw Sprouted Pumpkin Seed Butter is available on our site.  

When making our grain-free banana bread the recipe calls for baking powder.  Our Southern Odyssey has a recipe for a grain-free baking powder that is really easy to make.  Store bought baking powder contain grains like cornstarch as well as other fillers.  Our baking powder is grain-free as well as aluminum free.  The baking powder recipe only calls for three ingredients.  This will be more than you need for the Banana Bread; so, make sure you have a small jar to put the rest in to use in another recipe that calls for Grain-Free Baking Powder.

Another ingredient that we use in our Grain-Free Banana Bread is coconut oil.  Coconut oil when cold is a solid; however, when the oil is heated it becomes a liquid.  Coconut oil has many uses from culinary to personal care.  We love using coconut oil as an ingredient in many of our recipes.  When a recipe calls for coconut oil, it usually states that the oil needs to be in its liquid state.  If it is not in its liquid state it makes it impossible to incorporate it into the other ingredients.  So, always make sure to melt the coconut oil when you start the recipe.  That way the oil will have time to cool before it is added to the other ingredients.

It is important to take the eggs out of the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature.  If you start off with cold eggs and add the coconut oil that is in its liquid state to the eggs the coconut oil will start to become a solid.  This will cause little chunks of coconut oil to form in the wet ingredients.  

You might be saying well I just melted the coconut oil in the microwave.  The coconut oil should be hot and will remain a liquid when I add it to the eggs and other wet ingredients.  Not so fast!  If you add hot coconut oil to your egg mixture the hot oil will start to cook your eggs in the mixing bowl.  That is not what we want, at all.  This is why we say that the oil needs to have time to cool after it is melted, before it is added to the eggs and other wet ingredients.

Grain-Free Baking Powder & How to Beat an Egg.

Instructions:

Start by taking eight eggs out of the refrigerator, so they will be at room temperature.  As we said earlier, we do not want to use the eggs right out of the fridge.  Because, they will give us problems later on if we do.  Go ahead and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  That way the oven will have plenty of time to reach the temperature while we create the batter.  Line a loaf pan with unbleached parchment paper and set it to the side.  Parchment paper can be a little tricky; because, it likes to roll back up and refuses to stay in place.  

Here is a tip, take the parchment paper and cut it to the desired length.  You do not want it to fit the loaf pan exactly.  Leave little wings at the top and fold them over the sides of the loaf pan slightly.  That way you will be able to lift the Banana Bread out of the loaf pan after the bread is done.  We like to use the precut sheets.   They are the prefect size and it saves time.  Now about the parchment paper rolling back up.  Take the parchment paper sheet that has been cut to size and gently and lightly crunch the paper together like you would office paper just without the anger.  Then gently straighten the parchment paper back out.  Now you will have parchment paper that you can work with and that will mold to the shape of the loaf pan easier.  Use the visual in the step-by-step guide.

Now take and add the coconut oil to a small glass bowl, that can be used in a microwave, so the coconut oil can be melted.  This does not take long.  After the coconut oil is melted remove it from the microwave and allow it to cool.  Set the coconut oil to the side.  We will be using it a little later.  Take a medium mixing bowl with the sieve and add the coconut flour and baking powder to the sieve that is in the mixing bowl.  Add the Himalayan pink salt directly to the mixing bowl.  Take and lightly move the sieve back and forth allowing the flour to fall gently into the mixing bowl.  You may notice that there are small clumps left in the sieve.  Take and with the back of a spoon gently rub the spoon back and forth across the clumps until there are none left in the sieve.  With the same spoon mix the dry ingredients together in the mixing bowl.  Because, that is all the dry ingredients that we are using we can now take and sit the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients to the side until we need it later.

In another bowl, preferably one with a flat bottom, take and peel as well as break four ripe bananas into small pieces and add them to the bowl.  Mash the bananas with either a potato masher or a fork until they are a creamy consistency.  Take and sit the bowl with the creamy bananas to the side.  We will be adding them last to our batter.

Take the third mixing bowl and crack the eight eggs into the bowl.  Beat the eggs with a fork or whisk until they are a light yellow color.  We have provided a step-by-step guide on How To Beat An Egg on our site, as a reference.  Measure out the vanilla flavoring, maple syrup and melted coconut oil.  Then add them to the egg mixture.  As each of the wet ingredients are added to the egg mixture, mix the mixture to incorporate all the ingredients together.  

Now it is time to make the batter.  You will need the bowl with the dry ingredients as well as the bowl with the wet ingredients.  Take and slowly pour the egg mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients.  Only add a little wet ingredients at a time as you are stirring the dry ingredients.  Keep doing this until all the wet ingredients have been added to the dry ingredients.  Use the step-by-step guide for a visual.  After the wet ingredients and dry ingredients have been mixed well and you have a batter consistency.  Then add the creamy bananas that were mashed earlier to the batter.  Mix the bananas and the batter together making sure that they are incorporated.  

Pour the batter into the loaf pan that we prepared earlier.  Make sure to scrape the bowl and get all the batter that you can out of the bowl and into the loaf pan.  With a spoon take and spread the batter smooth across the top.  I, also, like to tap the loaf pan on the table or counter to get any air bubbles to come to the top and to help the batter settle to the bottom of the loaf pan.  

Bake the banana bread in a preheated 350 degree oven for 80 to 90 minutes.  Or until a toothpick, when inserted into the center of the loaf, comes out clean.  Remove the bread from the oven.  Sit the hot loaf pan on a potholder and very carefully take the corners of the parchment paper and lift the banana bread out of the hot loaf pan.  Sit the bread on a cooling rack to cool.  Make sure you do not touch your fingers to the hot loaf pan.

After the bread has had a chance to cool take and slice the bread.  The bread can now be eaten.  Refrigerate any leftover you may have.  Banana Bread holds for about five days in the refrigerator.  The bread may be cut into slices and frozen for three months.  Lay the bread slices in a single layer to freeze; so, you will be able to take out only the amount you want, later.  We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.

Don’t forget to let us know how you liked this recipe in the comment section below.