A GF/No Sugar Added Banana Nut Tea Bread

I don't know about you, but I've always got some bananas in an overripe state on my counter. Today I had three, which meant it was time to make Banana Nut Bread!

My friend Carly Harvey posted this on her blog, and I've tried it a couple of times as written, except I use my favorite "GF Bisquick," AKA Pamela's Baking and Pancacke Mix.
I also haven't tried to make it since I've had to cut back significantly and seriously on sugar and white carbs this summer.

So I spent a little time working with this, and I've adapted it for a GF/No added Sugar diet. One loaf makes about 8-10 slices. Note: While the sugar in this is natural sugar (from bananas) and from Splenda products, THERE ARE CARBS in here, folks. A lot of carbs. But they're good, fiber-filled carbs in this adaptation, not just empty white calories (and oh Lord, I do love empty white calories). I would say the fiber count in a slice of this is about 10 grams or so, with all that flax and all. So small slices, people. Small slices.

Here it is, for your holiday baking.

Carly Harvey's Meme’s Banana Bread, adapted to GF/No Sugar Added

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.
1 1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)_
2 cups Pamela's Baking Mix
1/3 cup ground flax seeds (I buy them ground and refrigerate them)
1/2 cup Splenda and 1/4 cup brown-sugar Splenda (or if you're not SF, use one cup sugar)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs (or equivalent egg substitute if you like. I have great free-range eggs, so I use eggs).
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used hazelnuts).

Beat all ingredients vigorously for 30 seconds. Bake 55-65 minutes.

Much love, and isn't that kid cute? I mean...you all know what banana nut bread looks like, right?
Ging

Mainstream GF from Betty Crocker!

I've been meaning to post this product post for a couple of days now, but power outages have plagued my internet use.

This is in praise of that gluten giant, General Mills, and its new attention to Gluten-Free Products. So mainstream it is it has garnered the attention of the Wall Street Journal!

It hasn't been too long since Gluten Free Rice Chex showed up on the market, and now we have GF Corn, Honey Nut, Chocolate and Cinnamon Chex to go with it. (I made a fool of myself with the Honey Nut Chex. Seriously....)

And now, Betty Crocker has produced FOUR GF mixes that show up on the main baking aisle at the store. And it's promising more to come!

Somebody pinch me! When you lack the baking gene as I do, you live for this kind of thing! I can rock a cake mix!

True, they're a bit pricier than old BC mixes (I paid $3.49 for the Devil's Food Cake Mix) but in terms of ease and taste, this is wonderful. Sure it only makes one layer, but it's easy -- cut that layer in half, either long ways or across, and frost. You either have a two layer cake or half a two layer cake. Either works fine!

I made the Devil's Food Cake round Sunday night in my convection oven. It took about 32 minutes (instead of 43) in my rubber pan. I let it cool and frosted it with Pillsbury GF Reduced Sugar Chocolate Fudge frosting. We ate it while it was still warm.

And it was delicious!

I kept it in the microwave (tell me you don't use your microwave as a bread box, now really) without covering it for three days (yes, it lasted that long!) and it was still moist and delicious as I scraped the final crumbs from the plate.

Licked, really.

I will still be a patron of the gluten-free companies (Bob's Red Mill, Pamela's, and Gluten-Free Pantry all come immediately to mind,) as those as my mainstays) that have served our community so well--I'd hate it if a company that has been so dedicated to the GF community lost business because of this -- but I am seriously thrilled to see these products on the mainstream shelf. Somehow having this on the main baking aisle seems so.....normal.

Betty Crocker, I thank you from the bottom of my gluten-free tummy -- and heart.

Much love, and pass the cake!
Ging