Hello, everyone. So it's been a while since I posted. I've had a lot going on personally that has kept me on my toes and I'm a real believer that sometimes life shows you when it needs you to re-focus your energies on what's going on around you. I’ve missed blogging but I've still been busy baking and making celebration cakes and have been published two (about to be three) times in an amazing Supper Club Magazine collaboration with fellow bakers and chefs across the world. But over the coming months, I’m also looking forward to spending time writing up my very favourite recipes for you all.
This first recipe is a simple bake for the New Year. I posted an image of a recent banana bread on my Instagram last week and had lots of lovely comments about it, so I promised that I'd post the recipe here.Everyone loves banana bread and it's so easy to throw together, I'm sure everyone has a recipe for it. But I've been experimenting and have come up with a lovely, moist, fluffy banana bread that's completely gluten free and very delicious.
The key to keeping it like this is to not over-bake it. I start to check on my cake from 30 minutes and you want the top to be a dark golden brown colour and a skewer in the middle to come out clean. There are 2 different banana breads pictured here and the one with the tighter crumb was baked for another 5 minutes or so in the oven so it does make that difference.
If you want to make your bread extremely indulgent (not pictured here), I roughly chop up a 100g bar of Green & Black's chocolate and stir this through as a final step before you put the batter in the tin for baking. I just love the melty chocolate in the bread when it comes fresh out of the oven :)
I'll keep it short and sweet for this first post of 2018 and wish you all the most wonderful year ahead filled with love, laughter and so many special moments. And it's lovely to be back sharing with you again xo
Easy peasy gluten-free banana bread
makes 1 small loaf
Ingredients
- 100g soft butter
- 200 gluten-free plain flour
- 3 ripe bananas (2 for the bread + 1 for the surface)
- 40ml maple syrup + optional 1 tbsp extra
- 75g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp gluten-free baking powder (or regular baking powder if you can tolerate a little gluten)
Equipment
- a loaf tin (mine is 25 x 11cm) or you can use a square baking tin if you double the recipe
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan)
- Grease and line a small loaf tin
- Take 2 bananas and put them in a small bowl with the maple syrup, mashing them together until you get a liquid consistency (how much will depend on how ripe your bananas are but you're just looking for them to be well combined)
- Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat them on medium for 5 minutes
- Scrape down the sides of your bowl and add the banana mixture, then beat them together on medium until combined - the mixture will start to look curdled here and will continue to do so until you add the flour
- Add each egg, one by one, beating after each addition
- Add the flour and baking powder and stir together until they're combined
- Pour the batter into the loaf tin and then cut a peeled banana in half and arrange both halves on the surface of the batter
- Bake for around 35 - 40 minutes - I keep an eye on it from 30 minutes to ensure that it's not browning too quickly and doesn't get over-baked
- Once the top is a deep golden brown colour and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean, remove the bread from the oven
- Leave it to cool for 5 minutes and then gently remove it from its tin and place it on a wire rack to cool
- The optional extra tablespoon of maple syrup is for brushing the surface of the warm bread - if your banana baked into the surface has dulled in the oven, it's great to have a little shine from the syrup and also on the rest of the bread
- I enjoy this best warm from the oven but it's beautiful when cooled too - if it has cooled down you can always zap it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to give it a little warmth and that just baked feeling again!
- To store it, wrap it in foil and keep at room temperature and it will last 1-2 days