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The best banana bread that ever was, Paleo or otherwise!Okay so you are wondering what the heavenly dessert bread is that my husband packs for his lunch. Isn't he on a diet? How did he loose his 9 months pregnant belly anyway. Some diet? He tells you of all the CRAZY restrictions of this "paleo" thing and your response is, "I can not diet like that, look at all the good stuff you have to give up". What will I eat if I want something sweet? Right then he gives you some of this heavenly bread and tells you its not all that bad. You think, "OMG thats allowed on the diet?" Where can I find that recipe. Well Im fixin' to tell you that right now. ;-)
First thing I do is set a banana aside wrapped in a paper bag to over ripen. We are looking for extremely ripe and soft here. This takes a few days or longer if you have kids that "find it" and eat it anyway. Bananas do not last long AT ALL at my house so this part is the trickiest of the whole recipe. The recipe will not turn out quite as nice with regular bananas. I did figure out that if you have one really good banana the other two do not have to be extremely ripe (see kids fining bananas and eating them comment above). 3 overripe bananas is ideal though. They need to be (at a minimum) just ripe enough to for your food processor or blender to liquify your bananas until they are smooth and without chunks. Smell the bananas when you puree them, aren't they so sweet? So sweet in fact that you really don't need more than the minimal amount of sweetener this recipe suggests. Just trust me on this one okay?
First things first.....I am not the owner of this recipe! Elana is over at Elana's Pantry. Here is the the link to the brilliant lady who created it. Usually I do an extensive search and find very similar duplicates to any recipe I try and link them beneath the recipe. Not this time, this recipe and combination of ingredients is truly unique and she should be commended for her culinary talents.
3 VERY RIPE Bananas
3 Eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
1 Tablespoon Raw Honey (regular will do if you cant get raw)
1/4 cup Olive Oil
2 cups Almond Flour (I am using Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
I do make a few changes from the suggested products the recipe owner uses because of local availability. I am outlining below the changes I made and why. The amounts I used are still the same as the original recipe. First Elana only suggests you use Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour.
Almond flour is not to be confused with almond meal, which contains whole, ground almonds that still have the skin on them. Almond meal, or almond flour that is not blanched, will not work for the almond flour recipes on this site.Change #1 ~ Almond Flour
Life as a gluten free mommy living so far from the city means you must special order certain products. But what if you want to give this recipe a try with the items you have on hand? My mission is to help you create recipes with ingredients you can find locally so I conducted a little experiment just for you!
:-)
I tried this recipe with blanched almond flour I made myself, with Bob's Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour that can be found in our local supermarket as well as the Honeyville Almond Flour I special ordered. I wanted to see if the statement above is true. Honeyville made the finest flour and therefore the closest to regular flour products. The differences I experienced was that the Bob's Red Mill and home made Almond Meal does tend to stay more moist in the middle. It takes a little watchful eye on the home made and store bought almond meal but it can be done. I simply baked it for the longer suggested time frame. If the part of the world you live in is challenged by humidity than my recommendation is to lower the heat in the oven and cook for slightly longer. You could also pulse your almond meal in a blender for a minute ~ careful not to over do it!
Note: This Almond Flour experiment was only for the Dessert Breads and not any other product such as Cookies or cakes.
Change #2 ~ The Oil/Fat
The second thing I changed was the type of Oil she suggested. Olive Oil, while an approved paleo oil, is not very popular to cook with in the Paleo world. Olive oil, however, is fine with me. I exclusively use Olive Oil at my house so I replaced the vegan Palm Oil Shortening with Olive Oil. It works just fine with this replacement.
Change #3 ~ The Salt
I did not use Celtic Sea Salt, just your regular old Walmart no frills variety white box salt. Elana says Celtic not as strong so your dish may be salty. I personally do not find it salty with converting with regular salt but I halved the salt she calls for anyway. As Elana suggests, feel free to suite your taste.
That's it. So head on over to Elana's Pantry and check out her other awesome Paleo Diet recipes! Free free to ask questions if you have problems.
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