Gluten-Free Adventures: Banana Bread

Gluten-Free Banana Bread, homemade, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Of all the gluten-free baking I've done within the past few months, I'd say the lemon blueberry loaf I posted about here is still my greatest success. That is, until now! This banana bread gives that one a run for the money. It's moist, dense, flavorful, holds together nicely and has a lovely brown color. It's delicious! And what's even better, this one calls for no xanthan gum at all. There may or may not be anything wrong with xanthan gum, which is a bacterially-derived polysaccaride whose purpose in gluten-free baking is to act as a binder, making the dough stickier and adding stretchiness and elasticity. Its allergenic potential is unknown (and some GF people are sensitive to it), but without it, some baked goods turn out crumbly and short. There are other ways to achieve the "glutenous" quality, but sometimes you can just simply omit it, with no problematic effects. This recipe is a great example. Maybe it's due to the naturally moist bananas, but this bread turned out just like regular banana bread. I used the recipe in the book "Gluten-Free Made Simple" by Dahlstrom, Burnley and Dahlstrom, and highly recommend it.

Gluten-Free Banana Bread
(from "Gluten-Free Made Simple" by Dahlstrom, Burnley and Dahlstrom)

3 ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
3 T buttermilk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups GF flour (since I know what flours I prefer, I used a mix of brown rice, white rice, sorghum and millet)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
Mash bananas.
In a large bowl mix sugar and butter until creamy. Add eggs and bananas.
In a small bowl mix buttermilk, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add to butter mixture and mix well.
Add GF flours to the butter mixture and mix well.
Pour into pan.
Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.