Banana Bonanza

Alex was on a banana binge for a of couple weeks. Like all trends of really liking a certain food, it seemed to end just after he bought far too many bananas for a normal human to consume. And thus, the bananas sat and sat, going from green to yellow to brown far too quickly. It must be added, despite how this might embarrass Alex, there were 7 brown bananas left over.

There is only one thing to do when one has an obscene number of over-ripe bananas: bake.

Now, for anyone that hasn't caught on to this fact via facebook and other blog entries, I discovered that I have a gluten intolerance over the summer. I also discovered that banana seems to make up for any odd flavored gluten free flour that often substitutes wheat flour. I was rather excited, therefore, to have an opportunity to try a couple recipes of gluten free banana bread. They are as follows:

From The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book (which, to me, is the equivalent of Joy of Cooking for bread)

Banana Rice Bread
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour (I suggest Bob's Red Mill as a general rule)
2 tablespoons potato flour (again, go to Bob)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons tapioca (quick-cooking) (You should be able to find this in the baking isle, it looks like crystals, not little white balls. The ball shaped form is not quick cooking)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional) (I used Pecans)
2 tablespoons butter or oil (I used butter)
3 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup buttermilk (I almost forgot this and had to pull the bread out of the oven after it had been in for a couple of minutes to mix in this ingredient)
2 medium-sized bananas, mashed (since I had so many bananas, I put them all in the food processor and used about a cup and a half of the mix)
2 eggs slightly beaten

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F) and grease a small-sized loaf pan. (The pan I used is a 4.5 x 8.5 pyrex loaf pan, and I wouldn't really call that small. I also didn't grease it and it turned out fine)
Sift the dry ingredients together, except the tapioca and the nuts. Now stir in tapioca and nuts.
Blend the remaining ingredients together and then add the dry ingredients to them . Mix well and pour into the loaf pan. Bake about 50 minutes, or until the bread tests done with a toothpick or small sharp knife. Allow it to stay in the pan for 10 minutes before removing, and then let it cool completely before slicing.

When buying the ingredients for this recipe, I noticed that good ol' Bob had his own recipe on the back of his Gluten Free Flour mix (not the same as the rice or potato flour). His goes something like this:

1/3 cup Canola Oil
2/3 cup Brown Sugar, packed
2 large Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 cups Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose GF Baking Flour (GF meaning Gluten Free)
2 tsp. Baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp Xanthan Gum (I left this out and put in a 1/2 tsp of baking soda. I think Xanthan Gum tastes funny and I had no desire to buy a huge package of it)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe Bananas
1/2 cup finely chopped Pecans or Walnuts (As you know, I went for pecans)
1/2 cup raisins (I left this out and added another half cup of pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9X5 inch non-stick loaf pan. For smaller loaves, use 5x3 inch loaf pans (I opted for smaller, but the pans I got were smaller than this and so I managed to get 5 muffin tops out of the recipe also. All pans were non-stick but I did not grease them). Cream together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer (couldn't find the electric mixer, so I did it by hand). Add flour, Xanthan Gum (baking soda), salt, baking powder and cinnamon to egg mixture, alternating with bananas. Beat until smooth. Stir in nuts and raisins (more nuts in my case). Batter will be somewhat soft (Batter was too soft, I added another half cup of flour. This might have been prevented by not heavily processing the bananas). Transfer to pans. Bake 9x5 inch loaf for 1 hour, 5x3 inch loaves for 45 minutes (this was too long for these, and the muffin tops took about 20 minutes... I didn't actually measure the time for them).

In terms of a review, Alex and I both really like the book recipe, though Bob's reminds me of the zucchini bread my great grandmother made. Bob's was a sweeter loaf of bread and more desserty (even though Laurel says that her loaf is dessert like, I disagree). The buttermilk in Laurel's and the lack of extra sugar make it very bready, not cakey. Its wonderful warm and with butter, but its really rich enough on its own, also. I'm not saying Bob's wasn't good, I just have more to say about Laurel's take on things.

I now have quite a bit of gluten free flour and buttermilk to get through and should do more baking in the near future. Granted, I am also going to be out of town from Wednesday until Sunday for a conference. We shall see!

Happy Baking All!