Nan-cy Drew
I've been going through a bit of a banana phase. Each week, I find myself stopping in at an overly priced natural foods market on my way home to buy a bunch of them, yellow with a tinge of green at the tips. But by week's end, brown blemishes have diminished the boomerang-shaped fruits' appeal, and they begin to rot on their perch above the microwave.
So what to do? It doesn't take a sleuth to solve this mystery: banana bread.
Lately, though, I've also been going through an "I really shouldn't eat dairy, including butter, because it's killing me, so I'm actually going to stop," phase. Which leads me to the coconut and cornmeal version of that dense, cake-like, banana-ridden bread you'll find below.
It's gritty, it's a bit more healthy, and it's heavy on the banana — and it still hits the spot.
Banana + Walnut Bread
no dairy, no glutens
- 3 overly ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 dash ground cloves
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 pinch table salt
- 1 1/2 cups corn flour
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside. Mash bananas with a fork in a large mixing bowl. Stir in melted coconut oil, then add egg, vanilla, and sugar. Mix in the walnuts and spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and stir in. Add the corn flour last. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven for 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out crumb-free.