Grain Free Banana Bread - Sugar Free

One of my very favorite things used to be waking up to the warm aroma of banana bread baking in my bread maker so I could eat it for breakfast with a slice of butter. Mmmm..

I will say that is something I still miss extremely since going grain free. We never used to eat muffins, but now we eat muffins instead of toast. I always had everything on hand to make banana bread as bananas are super affordable and there is always some going bad.

Last year, I made a delicious Banana Oat Bread recipe without flour but using oats instead. It was firm, chewy, warm and oh soo good. However it was super dense, super filling, super high in carbs and took a looooong time to bake.

I have a TON of recipe blogs, books and printouts, bookmarks on my phone, tablet and computer. However, I was surprised to notice that none of those books had a banana bread recipe. There was banana in cookies, scones, smoothies, pancakes, and muffins. 

None of the recipes could I use to my advantage.

I could have used my basic muffin recipe and just added banana instead of berries but I wanted to incorporate more than just 3 cups of expensive almond flour. I also wanted to sweeten it naturally without having to use 1/2 C of agave nectar like in most of my muffin recipes.

I have been reading that you can use dates to sweeten in place of sugar and agave or honey in recipes. PERFECT they are seriously $2.10 per bag compared to the $18.00 agave bottle i buy each month. Some months, it's tricky to get the agave to last through so I have become smarter and have figured out different ways of making substitutes still using natural ingredients to replace the agave.

The only reason I use agave is for the fact it's low on the Glycemic scale compared to honey, and maple syrup which are just as natural.
You can't just simply replace agave in recipes with sucralose or palm sugar because they will completely dry out and be gross. Also most recipes using coconut flour need agave to help as a binder so not only would I run into problems with the chemistry of the recipe it will not taste as good so using say oil or water to replace the agave will not work out the same in the recipe.

So I Will share with you my delicious banana bread recipe and then my recipes to substitute agave and for use as a sweetener.

Grain Free Banana Bread - Sugar Free, Dairy Free, Gluten Free

You will need to use a food processor for best results!! or a large blender. I am not sure if this recipe will turn out the same without a food processor. If you try it let me know.

In a microwave safe dish:
12 pitted dates
1/4 C filtered water

Microwave for 4 min until dates are brown and soft.

                           OR

1/2 C pre-cooked date syrup

Place dates and water in food processor and add:

1/4 C plus 3 T Flax meal or 1/4 Chia meal

3 T warm water

3 very ripe bananas

Puree until completely smooth and let stand 3-5 min. (if using date syrup simply pulse until combined)

1/4 grapeseed oil/coconut oil melted/melted butter
Add 1 T raw agave nectar/palm sugar/brown sugar sucralose blend**
2 t vanilla extract

3 eggs

Puree until smooth, Add:1/2 C chopped raw walnuts

1/4 C coconut flour

1/2 C almond flour

1/2 dark chocolate bar or 1/4 C chopped unsweetened baker's chocolate

3/4 t aluminum free baking soda

1/2 t Celtic sea salt

a splash of lemon juice or unfiltered apple cider vinegar

Pulse until blended

Mixture should be consistency of muffin batter. If too thick add water if too thin add some flax meal.

Spoon mix into a bread loaf pan oiled with grape seed oil and dusted with coconut flour. Mine was  8.5 x 4.25 x 2.5. Using a different size pan will change your baking time all together.

smooth top of batter to a nice smooth loaf. Bake at 350 for 45-55 min. Let completely cool to room temperature before eating to let the bread set.

Your loaf will rise 1 inch or so while baking. It will fall slightly once removed from the oven and cools. 

**Banana bread will be moist in the middle but should not be raw. Eating the bread hot out of the oven will cause the center of the bread to be squishy and fall apart. It's better if it is toasted slightly to reheat after it has cooled. Please be patient!!!