Banana Bread--no gluten, no refined sugar

There's an itty-bitty change of weather in the air.  A tad cooler, and a tad wetter. 

I haven't baked more than once or twice all summer.  I officially turned my oven back on yesterday after my hubby said "I really need you to make some banana bread with chocolate chips."  Ask, dear man, and ye shall receive!

The banana bread recipe I use comes from one of my ultimate favorite bloggers, Kelly at the "Spunky Coconut".  The mini chocolate chips are my own addition, because it makes my family SO very happy.  But if you leave them out/or use nuts instead, this recipe is free of any refined sugar.  (The kind of mini chocolate chips I use is "Enjoy Life", and they are sweetened with evaporated cane juice--which is still sugar, but less refined.)

I've made this bread enough that I've got it tweaked right where I want it, and I'm going to share those tweaks with you:

• The recipe calls for 2 bananas...I've found that two bananas = 2/3 c.  This is helpful to me because I buy my bananas ripe and freeze them in chunks. 

The stores always seem to have a section where they put the ripe (and therefore discounted) bananas.  I load my cart up whenever I see that, because ripe bananas are the very best kind to have!

 

I bring 'em home, peel them and cut them into chunks to freeze in ziplocks for smoothies and banana bread and muffins, and I also slice them 1/4 thick and dehydrate them for yummy banana chips. 

Funny, I used to get them .24 cents/lb a year or so ago...then they went up to .34/lb, and within a few months they were up to .44/lb!  I wonder if my buying them out all the time had anything to do with that?  It's like, the produce manager looked at his quarterly sales reports and exclaimed "Great Scott!  These ripe bananas are a HOT commodity!!!  Jack up the price...STAT!!"

• Instead of 1/2 c. honey, I use a combo of honey and pure maple syrup.  It just seems to lighten the color of the finished product a little bit and avoid excess browning.  I'm going to try to reduce that amount a little too...

• I omit the stevia.  It has an aftertaste I don't like.  And this bread is PLENTY sweet without it.  I substitute 1/2 tsp of regular vanilla instead.

• Where I live, and in my oven, it takes about 48-52 minutes to bake. Watch it closely near the end because it can over-bake rather quickly.

• I add in 1/4 c. mini chocolate chips.

• Instead of coconut oil I use butter

• This recipe uses coconut flour and tapioca flour.  I use Bob's Red Mill brand for both, and they can be easily found in any health food store, online, or at Fred Meyer.  The coconut flour is very dry and full of fiber.  It absorbs a lot of liquid, that's why coconut flour recipes use a lot of eggs.  You will notice the batter getting thicker after a few minutes as it absorbs the liquid.  Don't worry, the finished bread is NOT dry.  It is moist and tender and delicious!!

• Also, it's very helpful if you line your pan with unbleached parchment, and move your oven rack up a little bit.  Otherwise, the honey tends to make the bottom of the loaf too brown in my opinion.

Ok, here's that recipe link for you. 

Update:  Enjoy in moderation.  Coconut flour is a fiberous food.  Don't eat too much at one time if you aren't used to eating a lot of coconut.  Go easy! One slice at a time baby... :)