Gluten Free & Dairy Free Banana Bread

This day has been a long time coming. It has intimated me for 2 months but tonight I did it.

I baked gluten-free.

And it was weird.

I used a pre-mixed flour blend (from Planet Organic - thanks Kate!) and gluten free baking powder. All of the other ingredients are pretty standard which is exactly what I was looking for. My shelves are not yet stocked with the strange and wonderful potions from the gluten-free world. This bread is not only gluten-free, it's dairy free. My lactose free readers better try this one *wink wink*!

The recipe I used was from this website. Here it is:

Ingredients

2 cups white rice flour or your favorite simple gluten-free flour blend
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder (Celiacs - double check your baking powder. Not all is gluten free!)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups mashed, ripe bananas (about 5)
1 cup vanilla infused sugar (leave vanilla bean in sugar overnight and then remove bean) (I used 1/2cup white sugar + 1/2cup brown sugar +1tsp pure vanilla)
1/2 cup canola oil 

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray medium bread pan with nonstick cooking spray or grease with margarine and reserve. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and then make a well in the center. Add eggs, banana, sugar, and oil to the center and combine them before folding into the rest of the dry ingredients. Pour or spoon batter into your bread pan. Bake for an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before removing from pan, and then cool on a wire rack until you can’t stand it any longer.

MY REVIEW: So lets start with the smell - it was all good and normal. The final appearance resembled gluten-filled loaves I've made in the past as well. The taste ... it was decent - kind of soggy because I may have added too many bananas. The texture was weird but I will admit, I gobbled it up as I haven't had anything fresh baked from the oven in a long time. I don't really know what to say about this. I know it will get eaten. At least it wasn't a TOTAL flop because I probably would have given up baking gluten-free on the spot. I can work with this result.

JASON'S REVIEW: It was grainy and had a weird texture but it tasted good.