Banana Bread, F&W Style

IMG_9899

There were three bananas on the counter, staring me down every time I entered the kitchen. Too ripe to eat, but not enough to throw away.

We were going out of town for the weekend. Something had to be done.

IMG_9901

Thankfully, I found a healthy (and vegan!) banana bread on Food & Wine’s website.

Problem solved.

Cinnamon Banana Bread (my changes in parentheses)

  1. 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free, all-purpose baking flour (whole wheat flour) 
  2. 1 teaspoon baking soda
  3. 1 teaspoon baking powder
  4. 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  5. 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (omitted – I don’t have it.)
  6. 1/4 teaspoon salt
  7. 3 overripe bananas, mashed
  8. 1/4 cup canola oil
  9. 1/3 cup agave nectar
  10. 1/3 cup unsweetened soy milk (vanilla almond milk)
  11. 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly oil an 81/2-by-41/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom and sides of the loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk the baking flour with the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, xanthan gum and salt. In another bowl, whisk the bananas with the oil, agave nectar, soy milk and vanilla. Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the banana bread cool on a rack for 20 minutes before turning it out. Let cool completely before slicing.

IMG_9904

It’s rare that I make a banana bread that is just banana bread and it was refreshing to have a loaf filled with sweet banana flavor. No nuts, no chocolate chips, no nutella.

The only other change I would make would be to either add another cup of flour or use a smaller loaf pan. While it tasted great, the loaf didn’t exactly fill up the pan and I like my banana bread taller than this.

Regardless, it let me use up my bananas and the house smelled amazing.

FOOD & WINE is giving away a year-long subscription to a lucky reader from BranAppetit.  Click here to enter and read official rules here.

This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD & WINE archive.  As a FOOD & WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD & WINE.  I received a subscription to FOOD & WINE for my participation.

16 comments

  1. I just made banana bread also. SO easy and tasty. Yours looks great!

  2. I looove banana bread and cinnamon- sounds like a winner to me!

  3. This banana bread looks good but nothing in comparison to your Nutella Marbled Banana bread. You know how much I love that – so much that it HAD to be included in my first post! :-)

  4. I love the smell of banana bread, so comforting. Now I want to make some!

  5. Banana bread reminds me of my great grandma. She would hide 3 from us as a kid so we wouldn’t eat them and she could make us banana bread. I still have her hand written recipe that I cherish.

  6. i seriously love banana bread and i’m realizing it’s been way too long since i’ve had any!

  7. I think that banana bread, in any form, can do little wrong. Maybe it’s the nostalgia it evokes, or just the fact that warm bananas are simply bangingly wonderful….good stuff! Thanks for a simple, new recipe!

  8. Ah the never-ending banana problem. We have it here all the time. I am sending this to my roommate who is the resident banana bread baker in the house because we need to try it!

  9. Banana bread is the ultimate comfort food :) thanks for the recipe.

    Also- I tried your gingered applesauce bread recipe the other day after seeing it on Health For the Whole Self. Awesome recipe, and I’m super impressed that you came up with it pretty much on your own. It was so good that I sent a loaf to my sister for her birthday this week!

  10. That looks great! I love banana bread :)

  11. Yum! I love the addition of cinnamon to this banana bread!! Fabulous!! :)

  12. Youu probably know this already but it didn’t matter that you didn’t have xanthan gum since you switched out the GF flour — that’s why the xanthan gum was in the recipe in the first place.. to act as “gluten” kind of.

    Loooks super yummmyy!!

  13. There’s so many good banana bread recipes out there–this looks like one of em!! :-)

  14. Brandi,
    I love your blog so much. :) XOXO

  15. This recipe looks great! I think I need to make some banana bread asap. ;)

Comments are closed.