I stopped at Wegman's yesterday for eggs on the way home from Coco's house because I didn't feel like dealing with one-way streets to get to Greenstar, and obviously, I couldn't just get eggs...
...Crystal in a grocery store is like giving a thirteen-year-old girl a shopping spree at the mall :)
Anyway, I tried not to get too much, and ended up leaving with new toothbrushes (yay!), loads of bananas (I capitalized on the opportunity to buy RIPE bananas from Wegman's- they are usually bright green), a carton of cage-free eggs ($3.20 - WHAT? .... LOCAL eggs from happier hens are cheaper than that!), and two bags of Nestle chocolate chips so I can try to perfect the gluten-free chocolate chip cookie.
When I woke up this morning, I looked outside and saw a light dusting of snow, and thought that it would be the perfect morning to make banana bread with some of my ripe bananas (I saw a little bunch that was over-ripe, so I bought it with the intention to make banana bread in mind).
I decided that the flavors of the Gluten-free flour blend #1 that I shared in a previous post would compliment the flavors of the banana, and also decided to play with combining the flavors of cinnamon, cardamom, maple syrup, ginger, and applesauce in my bread.
Gluten-free banana bread #1
3 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 tbsp applesauce
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
3 medium-sized bananas
seeds from 3 green cardamom pods
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
pinch cloves
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour blend #1 (see previous post for recipe)
**Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl, combine softened butter and dark brown sugar, cream with fork. To this, add applesauce, yogurt, maple syrup, molasses, and vanilla, stirring after the addition of each ingredient. Then, add 2 eggs to the mixture, and beat with electric mixer until combined. Next, add bananas (in small chunks), and beat with mixer until everything is pretty uniform in texture (if you like chunkier banana bread, don't beat as much.. my bananas could have been a little more ripe and mushy, so I used the beater to mix everything). Set aside.
Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the gluten-free flour blend #1() into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
Crush the seeds from 3 cardamom pods so they are a fine powder (I actually put the cardamom seeds and the cinnamon into my coffee grinder and it worked very well- I needed to put the cinnamon in there because the seeds themselves weren't enough material to grind on their own).
Add cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and baking powder to the flour. If you have a sifter, sift everything together. If not, mix VERY well to make sure everything is a uniform consistency.
Add dry mixture to wet mixture, stir to combine.
Use olive oil to grease a loaf pan, pour mixture into pan.
**note: after taking out of oven and taste-testing, I realized that the center really didn't cook quick enough and the sides/top/bottom cooked much quicker. I would highly suggest that you pour most of the mixture into a loaf pan, but also make 2 or 3 regular-sized muffins or 4-5 mini-muffins with the mixture. That way, your bread will bake perfectly! :)
Bake for about 40 minutes or until done!
Cardamom:
..... I just took the bread out of the oven.... WOW. It is REALLY GOOD. The cardamom gives it a really interesting flavor, it is sweet enough without being obnoxiously sweet (many quick bread recipes call for A LOT of sugar- I've seen pumpkin bread recipes with 2 cups of sugar- OMG!), with a not-so-overpowering banana flavor. YUM. The gluten-free flour blend recipe also worked really well with the flavors of the banana and spices that went into the bread & it is healthier than most banana bread recipes out there!!!Success! :)
