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Low Carb Banana Bread {paleo, keto, gluten-free, dairy-free}
This delicious, low carb banana bread is only sweetened with a few ripe bananas and it’s so delicious, super satisfying and perfectly subtle. Grain-free, dairy-free, paleo and keto-friendly.
I don’t exactly love straight-up bananas, personally, but Mark often requests having a bunch on hand. I will occasionally add them to our organic CSA box (community supported agriculture) that gets delivered to the house each week. But, often, he won’t eat all of them and then they get a bit over ripe. YUCK! Literally one of my least favorite things, in the entire world. Usually I just peel them and freeze for smoothies, but this most recent time, it felt like a perfect reason to make banana bread, a treat I haven’t made in maybe nearly a decade. (not joking)
For my low key sweet taste buds, the ripe bananas are the perfect sweetener – nothing extra needed. I find for my palate, the subtle sweetness from a ripe, in-season fruit, some coconut cream, super dark chocolate or even just caramelized, roasted veggies – these are often plenty sweet for me to satisfy that important taste. I absolutely don’t believe sweet is a taste that needs to be avoided but redefining the relationship that we have with sweet is the ultimate goal. These beautiful, nuanced, naturally sweet flavors from real whole foods can easily get missed when we flood our taste buds constantly with sugar or sugar alternatives. This is what leads to the constant sugar cravings and needing more and more sweet stuff. Imagine if a piece of fruit were enough!! Talk about taking away the power a food has over us (ahem, this is what sugar is best at) and experiencing true food freedom.
If reducing your sugar intake is still fairly new for yo and you are worried bananas as a sweetener might not cut it for you, I challenge you to give it a try and then you can always consider a light drizzle of honey over your warm, toasted banana bread. Or you can always add a tablespoon or two of coconut sugar or date sugar to the batter. Some dark chocolate chips might also be a nice addition to the bread, too, if that’s your thing. Mmmmmm.
How to Make Low Carb Banana Bread:
The most important step is the super ripe bananas, they bring the flavor and the sweetness here. Regular ripe bananas will be far less sweet. If your bananas have green tips, that’s awesome for a lower sugar fruit option, but they tend to be more starchy and less sweet and you definitely won’t be able to mash them up.
Flour Options for Low Carb Banana Bread:
Next, the almond flour is the star here!! This recipe was developed and tested with blanched almond flour. Be sure to go with a blanched fine almond flour, an almond meal with the skins included in the flour will likely results in a slightly different texture. If you can’t have almond flour, you can experiment with another nut flour, like cashew flour, macadamia flour or hazelnut flour. Sunflower seed flour may work, but be aware that the baking soda combined with sunflower seed flour can result in a green color due to chlorophyll present in the seeds, half the baking soda and add 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar. You might also try oat flour or an all-purpose gluten-free flour, while not grain-free or low carb, these might work for some of you, they *should* substitute 1:1. Please note – I have not tested ANY of these, so experiment at your own risk and please report back if you do. You CANNOT swap coconut flour for almond flour as a 1:1, they are totally different flours and they behave and react completely different. Coconut flour is more absorbent. A good starting point if opting for coconut flour would be to use 1 cup of tapioca flour and 1 cup of coconut flour in place of the 2 cups of almond flour and add two additional eggs. Again, these are educated guesses, this HAS NOT been tested on my end.
Optional Add-ins for Low Carb Banana Bread:
Add in your favorite nut or seed, walnuts, pecans or hemp seeds are really great options. You can also add in dark chocolate chips or chunks, cacao nibs, cranberries, raisins or other dried fruit. You can also add cut up bananas to the top of your loaf just before baking.
Ingredients
- 2 cups blanched superfine almond flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot starch, tapioca starch would also work*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder, use or make a paleo baking power, if necessary
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- generous pinch ground nutmeg, optional
- 4 small-medium very ripe bananas, or 3 large, mashed well (measures to a bit over 1 cup)
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup ghee, melted (melted coconut oil, avocado oil or melted butter would also work)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a small loaf pan (my pan was 7.5 X 3.5 inches) with parchment paper strips, leaving two inches of overhang on the sides of the pan. Lightly brush or spray the lined pan with oil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour breaking up any big clumps, arrowroot starch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, eggs, vanilla and ghee (or coconut oil) until well combined.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, slowly. Stir by hand until it is smooth and no clumps of flour remains.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Gently tap the pan on the counter top to distribute the batter and eliminate any air pockets.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes until it's a nice deep golden brown color on top and set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (if the top of the loaf starts to brown too quickly, tent it with foil).
- Using the parchment paper strips that overhang, carefully lift up and remove the banana bread from the pan and transfer it to a wire rack to cool. Carefully remove the parchment paper so the bread can cool.
- Allow to cool at least 30 minutes. Cut into 10-12 slices, serve and enjoy.
Notes
if you wish to skip the arrowroot or tapioca starch, try instead ground golden flaxseed meal -
Banana Bread Gluten-free Doughnuts with Maple Hemp Heart Glaze
What sounds more comforting than warm, homemade banana bread, straight from the oven? How about banana bread doughnuts. How about banana bread doughnuts dipped into a maple-sweetened hemp heart glaze? I’m sorry if you are drooling on your keyboard, but also, sorry not sorry. These are the best! They didn’t last more than a few hours over here.
These doughnuts are a wonderful use for those overripe bananas you have sitting on the counter. Bake these babies up for the perfect weekend breakfast, or make them ahead and you have the perfect on-the-go breakfast for this busy work day mornings. They aren’t sickeningly sweet, most of the sweetness coming from the bananas, the little bit of coconut sugar and of course, the beautiful, glossy maple hemp heart glaze.
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George and Juli’s Paleo Cinnamon Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread
Today, I am super excited to be sharing this delicious Paleo Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread recipe from George Bryant of Civilized Caveman Creations and Juli Bauer of PaleOMG, two paleo blogger powerhouses. This recipe comes from their soon-to-be-released collaborative cookbook The Paleo Kitchen.
Whether you are a full blown paleo eater or just a real-food eating gluten-free chick like me who is mindful of the amount of grains she consumes, I am 100% certain that The Paleo Kitchen is going to be an amazing addition to your kitchen. Besides the beautifully created, unique flavor combinations in the over 100 brand new recipes, this book is also chock full of beautiful photography, tips, tricks and other anecdotes to inspire you.
Here are just some of the amazing recipes you will find in The Paleo Kitchen:
· Sage and Shallot Delicata Squash Soup
· Citrus Mint Sugar Salad
· Blackberry Lavender Muffins
· Banana Chip French Toast
· Creamy Seafood Risotto
· Pepper Crusted Prime Rib
· Asian Marinated Bacon-wrapped Asparagus
· Spinach and Artichoke Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
· Blueberry Cheesecake
· Lime Pound Cake with Coconut Lime Frosting
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Grain-free Banana Coconut Mini-Loaves – Gluten-free, Dairy-free + Refined Sugar-free
If you follow me on Instagram you probably already know this, but I just love Instagram 🙂 It is probably my favorite social networking platform there is right now, because it is just a little glimpse into people’s lives. Very few words, just a quick glance. It doesn’t feel totally invasive and it is rare that you have people complaining on there or posting political rants, etc. I just feel like it is a big celebration of everything happy going on in our lives. I love seeing peoples pets, their kids, what they are working on, a snapshot from their amazing vaction and of course, all of the food. Some days I put up so many photos of food, I am sure most of my non-food blogging friends want to (or do) unfollow me, but I personally love seeing what is happening in everyone’s kitchens. It is always so inspiring and exciting.
A week or two ago my good friend Esther, who I sadly haven’t seen in a while, posted a photo on Instagram of some amazing little mini-loaves she just pulled out of the oven. They looks delicious and I loved the pan she made them in. The pans are all connected and just the perfect sized little treat, I had never seen anything like it. I mean, what is it about miniature things that is just so irresistible? When I asked Esther where she got it from, she said just up the street from her (she lives in Princeton, NJ), and she offered to pick one up for me. Yay! So, I told her to tell me what it costs and I would send her the money. Next thing I know a package comes in the mail to me, with the pan and a sweet note, as a birthday gift from Esther. It made my whole day! Thank you again so much Esther! The very next morning I started thinking about what I would make with it.
I had some bananas in the pantry that were definitely overripe, so I thought I had to make some banana bread but I wanted to do something a little different and create a grain-free recipe made with my favorite, almond and coconut flours, that also included some yummy coconut, since the two go so well together.
Even after playing around with so many baked-good recipes that use the combination of almond and coconut flours, I am still amazed every time I bake with it and it comes out with a grain-like quality to it, it really surprises me each time. I always expect a weird goopy mess that doesn’t quite work. These mini-loaves are just perfection, they are moist and spongey like any good banana bread should be, plus I really love the little bits of coconut throughout and on top. These loaves would also be good with nuts on top or some mini-chocolate chips (both of which I thought of after it was too late). By the way, how great is that plate? Perfect for these mini-loaves right? That was a super thoughtful birthday gift from my friends Sarah and Brian. I have some pretty amazing pals!
What’s your favorite mini-food or mini kitchen gadget?
FYI – this is the mini-loaf pan that I used for reference. Each loaf well measures 3 13/16″ x 2 1/2″ and 1 1/2″ high, I haven’t tried this recipe as a single loaf or even the slightly larger mini-loaf pans, so I cannot attest to how it will come out, likely it will work, the loaves will probably have less height to them and you will have to bake it for longer. If you experiment with different loaf pans and this recipe, please let me know how it comes out. Thank you!
[print_this]Grain-free Banana Coconut Mini-Loaves – Gluten-free, Dairy-free + Refined Sugar-free
makes 8 mini-loaves- 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour (I like Honeyville)
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup unsweetened finely shredded coconut, saving a small amount for the top of the loaves
- 2-3 large ripe bananas, mashed (you are looking to get about 1 1/2 cups)
- 4 extra-large local farm fresh brown eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350º F. Grease your mini-loaf pans with a little coconut oil, I used this pan.
In a large bowl combine the almond and coconut flours with baking soda, sea salt and shredded coconut. In a small bowl combine the eggs with the coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract and the mashed bananas, whisk until very well combined.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry and mix well until fully incorporated.
Divide the batter evenly into the 8 mini-loaf pans, smooth it out a bit with a spatula and sprinkle a little shredded coconut on top of each loaf.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Test with a tooth-pick for doneness. Remove loaves from oven, let cool in pans for 10-15 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.I find for these type of grain-free baked goods, that storage in the fridge seems to be best, I usually just cover or wrap them in plastic wrap or put them in a large ziplock bag. When I am ready to eat one, I pull it out, give it 20 seconds in the microwave or a minute or two in the toaster oven and then I slather a little coconut oil on top.
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