I am one week away from my “summer,” having my off-block from rotations in July. I’m counting down the days until lots of family time, reading my large stack of books I have yet to get to, and plenty of kitchen fun! We also have a short Vegas trip booked towards the end of July, which I am still surprised to say I’m actually pretty excited for. To kick off the summer and berry season, I got tons of fresh blueberries. I also had plenty of extra ripe bananas on the counter (which were kinda stinking up the place – I hate the smell of ripe bananas), so blueberry banana bread it was!
I’ve made plenty of blueberry quick breads filled with gluten (with zucchini, banana, and regular blueberry), so I figured it was time to finally make one gluten free. I decided to stick with almond and coconut flours to keep it high in fiber and protein, and I sweetened it almost entirely with bananas (with just a hint of liquid stevia – Trader Joe’s has a good one that I don’t notice any aftertaste from). Nice and healthy.
A bit of lemon zest and lots of bursting blueberries really make this into the perfect summer bread. The banana flavor takes the backseat – it’s very subtle here. Because coconut flour gives a different texture than your standard flours, this bread almost resembles a sponge cake – extremely light and moist.
The only thing about this bread is that you really need to wait until it’s completely cool before slicing it up. If you don’t, it falls apart a little bit (although it does still taste delicious if you just can’t wait). I made two loaves because I had so many bananas, and I sliced the first one after it just slightly cooled. The slices looked pretty ugly – not straight and easy to slice like the ones pictured. After putting it into the fridge, it was perfect.
This bread is great on its own, but it would also be wonderful crumbled overtop some Greek yogurt, or even over ice cream!
What is your favorite thing to make with blueberries?
- 1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed (about 3 medium bananas)
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp liquid stevia (optional for more sweetness - or 1/4 cup honey also works)
- 1 cup almond meal/flour (I use Trader Joe's almond meal)
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups blueberries
- 1 1/2 tsp demerara sugar (or raw cane sugar), for topping
Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and line a standard loaf pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the eggs, yogurt, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and liquid stevia, if using. Stir until smooth.
In a medium bowl, stir the almond meal, coconut flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the banana mixture, stirring until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar evenly over top.
Bake at 350ºF for 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean, and the top is golden brown. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cool completely before cutting (I put it into the refrigerator to ensure I got nice slices). You can freeze this loaf, tightly wrapped, for up to 2 months.
https://cookingalamel.com/2014/06/blueberry-banana-bread-gluten-free.html