Monday, December 6, 2010

A gluten-free experiment

My new naturopath-enforced diet says that I can't have any bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and obvious sugars. The first four are proving to be ok, but my sweet tooth is starving!

I decided today to make a banana cake that is as close to what I'm allowed to have as possible. I combined a couple of recipes and tweaked it a bit due to ingredient availability. I'll need to use an different loaf tin next time because the one I used today made it a very flat loaf! Taste wise though, it was really, really good! And the kids like it too - WIN/WIN!

Sliced and served with butter, it is going to satisfy my night-time lolly pangs quite well, I think.

Here's the recipe -

Gluten and Sugar Free Banana Loaf

90 grams butter
1/3 cup honey (or sugar, if you'd prefer, but then of course it couldn't be called 'sugar free')
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 large banana
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 ¼ cups of gluten free self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup plain yoghurt (I only had a tub of Vaalia French Vanilla, so I used that)
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts (I didn't have them, but they would be a great addition)

Beat the butter and honey together until light and fluffy. Add lightly beaten eggs, the peeled, mashed banana and the lemon juice. Fold in dry ingredients and yoghurt. Stir in half the chopped walnuts, mix until smooth. Spoon mixture into greased and greased paper lined 25 cm x 8 cm (10in x 3 in) bar tin, sprinkle with remaining walnuts. Bake in a 180 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy!