Gluten Free Banana Bread

What do I love more than bread?…..BANANA BREAD!!!  This recipe is pretty darn close in taste & texture to my original wheat-flour version; crumbly & light, whilst also moist & gungy. It is a taste of my childhood & comfort.

Ingredients

• 125g Melted organic salted butter (I prefer Yeo Valley)
• 4 Large Eggs (separated)
• 1/2 cup of Xylitol
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 2 very ripe medium bananas mashed (black skins all over)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 80g Coconut flour
• 1 loaf tin (dims: 9cm x 15cm x 7cm. W x L x H)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175C or 350F
2. Completely line a small loaf tin with baking parchment.
3. Make an emulsion with the egg yolks & the melted butter; whisk the egg yolks on a high speed until they thicken slightly & look creamy. Add the butter 1dsp (10ml) at a time, whisking thoroughly so the butter is properly incorporated before adding any more. Keep adding the butter, after a while you should be able to add more of the butter at a time. Continue until all the butter is incorporated. (If you are unsure of what this should look like, have a look at my recipe for coconut flour scones as this uses the same techniques.)
4. Add the Xylitol & vanilla essence. Give it a good whisk as the xylitol takes a bit of time to dissolve.
5. Add half the bananas & whisk. Then add the rest of the bananas & stir in with a wooden spoon so there are some pieces of banana in the mix.
6. Sift the coconut flour, baking powder & cinnamon into the mixture. Stir in. Then set aside to let the flour expand
7. Whisk the egg whites on high until they are very stiff, as if you were making meringues.
8. Fold the egg whites into the banana mixture; Stir in 1 large spoon to loosen the mixture. At this stage don’t worry about knocking out the air. Then gently fold in the egg whites, one spoon at a time, being careful to preserve the air in the egg whites. It is best to use a large metal spoon. Keep going until all the whites are incorporated.
9. Gently pour the mixture into the baking tin.
10. Bake for 20 mins, then turn the tin around in the oven. Bake for another 20minutes. Check the bread with a metal skewer. If it is mainly coming out clean, then turn the oven off & leave the banana bread in the cooling oven for another 10 minutes.
11. Remove the bread from the tin & leave to cool on the cooling rack. When it is cool enough to handle, gently peel off the baking parchment & leave on the cooling rack until room temp.

Recipe for Coconut Flour Scones

I love bread! It is the one thing I can seriously binge on, not the white fake stuff, but yummy, scrummy, organic, wholemeal or some incredible sourdough, lovingly baked by a master craftsperson of a baker. Unfortunately it is an unrequited love,  wheat & gluten most definitely  do NOT love me! I finally cut wheat out of my diet to treat the candida overgrowth, but I’m one of a growing number of people discovering that they are gluten intolerant.  One of the problems with gluten free bread is that it has a gazillion ingredients, many of which I would never use. In my eyes it’s even more processed than normal bread & it doesn’t taste particularly good. So I went on a culinary quest to bake a good alternative…

Recipe for Ginger Witches Brew

Until I started eating a candida elimination diet, I got reflux & felt sick a lot, so I made my Ginger Witches Brew to help, now I love it and drink a litre of it every week. This is quite spicy & strong, but you can dilute it to taste or drink it with fizzy water for your own sugar-free ginger beer.

Ginger is so good for you; reduces nausea, aids digestion, powerful anti-inflammatory &  antioxidant. It can help with joint pain & osteoarthritis. New research is pointing towards ginger having anti-diabetic properties. More importantly for endometriosis sufferers, ginger is good for treating menstrual pain, especially when taken in the first few days of your period. Oh & it is strongly antibacterial, so can lower your risk of infections.  

Emsie’s Sugar-free Ketchup

I loved the idea of an old fashioned ketchup that is sugar free. I did quite a lot of research on the historical origins of ketchup & their ingredients. I wanted something that was  more like a fruity, spiced brown sauce, with unami but still a tomato ketchup; an interesting condiment and a kitchen staple. This really has become my go to sauce as it goes fantastically well with burgers, meat, poultry, fish & vegetables. It elevates the simplest of dishes. It’s taken me 5 versions to get to this recipe & I have a feeling I will tinker with the spice blend until the day I die, but that’s the fun of it.

Desk Catastrophe

I love my desk, which is set up in the bay window of my living room, catching the best of the sunshine…..and so do Dizzee & Rascal. Particularly Rascal, whose favourite position is lying on the keyboard or the mouse. At the very least, I should keep one hand free to stroke and adore him. Tonight I set up a desk lamp so I could write my blog, within seconds Rascal had discovered it’s brilliant for attracting bugs to catch & munch.

Thank goodness I don’t HAVE to work from home.  Oh but you know that I wouldn’t change them for a second.  My beautiful, loving, snuggly catgods make me smile.

Meet my Cat Gods

I adopted Dizzee & Rascal from the Cats Protection in July 2015. They were approximately 4months old & in a bit of a sorry state as they had cat flu. The Cats Protection were brilliant; they asked me to foster the cats until they were healthy & could be signed off by their vet, which meant that the Cats Protection were liable for the vets bills.  An intense week followed with Rascal having to be syringe fed for 48hours, but they bounced back & incredibly put on half a kilo each!

Mayonnaise for Candida Diet

I love mayonnaise but all the manufactured mayo has sugar added & mustard, both of which are not allowed if you are following a candida elimination diet.  Mayo is so quick & easy to make. It takes less than ten minutes. Once you start making your own, I swear you will never go back to store bought again.

As long as your eggs are fresh, this is an almost foolproof method.

Recipes

All recipes & food photographs are my own unless otherwise stated.