PALEO CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA BREAD
What to do with left over ripe bananas? Bake banana bread! Follow my super easy recipe for chocolate chip banana bread using paleo ingredients completely gluten free, dairy free and 100% delicious.
Ok so I LOVE bananas but I’m quite specific about them. I prefer unripe to ripe rather than ripe to overripe. I definitely think biting into a banana and eating sliced banana makes them taste different. (I think it’s an oxidation thing where as soon as you cut into a banana it starts to brown and get a bit mushy. It’s all about the texture of banana for me). And though I love bananas I don’t necessarily like banana flavoured things. And so I‘ve only recently started to like banana bread, and bear in mind it is banana bread that I’ve made with my paleo ingredients and so how closely it matches to normal banana bread I’ve actually no idea as I’ve never eaten it!
In fact having bananas back in my diet again is also quite new. Having had to have a zero sugar diet for so many months to heal my gut, bananas were off the menu due to its high glucose high fructose content. My gut is good again and I have been introducing some sugars back into my diet, but it’s not something that I like to do too much of and so I still maintain a relatively low carb diet and making sure I earn them through my training.
So the story of how I came to baking this chocolate chip banana bread/cake came about from my craving for a post workout banana and I bought a whole bunch instead of a single banana, which then sat untouched in my fruit bowl for a few days. So I put it out to my social media followers to vote on what I should make with my ripening bananas – chocolate chip banana bread or banoffee pie.
Again banoffee pie is something I’ve never really eaten. An ex boyfriend of mine was crazy about them but the combo of sliced bananas (blurgh) and caramel which I find far too sweet has never appealed to me. The only reason I’ve considered making it is because I’ve found a way to make caramel without using sugar when I made my low carb paleo millionaires shortbread (see the recipe here) and thought it would be an interesting bake with paleo pastry and coconut cream topping.
But I put the decision out to social media and though it was a close competition, banana bread won the votes.
And so here it is. Although it is much more of a banana cake than a loaf of banana bread so you can choose to make it in a different shaped cake tin if you prefer. The final recipe posted here is actually tweaked from the one pictured in the photos. You’ll see that the loaf is actually really tiny where it didn’t rise as much as I’d hoped, a common issue I've found when using coconut flour. So the recipe has more rising agent to help give it more lift. I haven’t had a chance to take any photos of a loaf made to this new recipe as the last one I baked I took on holiday with me so I could have après ski cake, which was the best idea ever hehe. But whether it rises or not it still tastes ridiculously good. Give it a try for yourself.
** RECIPE UPDATE June 2018 !! **
I've recently discovered a way to get more volume into the cake. Rather than beating the wet ingredients and mixing in the dry as described in the old version of this recipe, simply place all the ingredients into a blender and whizz it all up! The blender helps pull in more air for that extra bit of rise. You will need to scrape down the sides occasionally as the batter thickens quickly as the coconut flour absorbs the liquid, and getting the batter out of the blender can be a bit messy but it is definitely worth it for the fluffier sponge you get from it. An even simpler fuss free cake recipe! Yay!
Makes: 1 loaf cake Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 35-40 mins Total Time: 45-50 mins
INGREDIENTS:
½ cup Coconut Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Baking Soda
¼ tsp. Salt
2-3 Ripe Bananas
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
¼ cup Coconut Oil
3 Large Eggs
½ cup Dark Chocolate Chips (dairy and sugar free if possible)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 170°C and line and grease a loaf tin
Place the banana and all the wet ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth
Add the coconut flour, baking powder and soda, and salt and blend until combined. You will need to scrape down the sides of the blender occasionally and give it a good stir to make sure it is fully combined.
Pour the mixture into your loaf tin and carefully fold in your chocolate chips
Bake for 35-40 mins. Use a toothpick to check that the loaf is cooked through
Let the loaf cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely
