INGREDIENTS
350g bananas mashed (~ 3-4)
1½ cups spelt flour or plain gluten free flour
1 cup coconut sugar (substitute half monkfruit sugar substitute if you prefer)
½ cup desiccated coconut
¼ cup olive oil
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb activated in lemon juice and topped up with water to make ¼ cup
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla – powder, paste or extract
pinch salt
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 170 C
- Mash the bananas well with a fork. If you blitz them in a food processor, the texture is not the same.
- Place the bicarb in a quarter cup measure, pour over just enough lemon juice to make it fizz and dissolve, then top up the measure with water. This is not essential, but it helps to eliminate the bicarb taste in some baked foods. Just be sure to mix well if you don’t activate it.
- Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine – careful not to over-mix.
- Transfer to a lined loaf tin.
- Cook for 45-60 minutes – it can sometimes take even longer than this so don’t worry. It should be golden on top and a cake skewer should come out clean. If in doubt turn the oven down a bit and leave in for a little longer.
- Leave in tin to cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
VARIATIONS
- We have made this recipe hundreds of times and in our experience the gluten free flour that gives the best results is 'Orgran' which is available at supermarkets
- The recipe uses unrefined coconut sugar which always gives a lovely caramel flavour but if you looking to cut back on the amount of sugar you use, you could try substituting with allulose which is available online, at health food shops and sometimes at one of the major supermarkets. We like using half coconut sugar and half allulose to still retain some of the lovely taste of coconut sugar.
- To make an even healthier version, you can add in medicinal mushroom powders or up the protein content by adding in our favourite clean whey protein powder from Chief.