RECIPE - Super Healthy Banana Bread - Gluten Free, Dairy Free (No added Sugar, No Fat!)

A healthy banana bread recipe is one of those amazing things that tastes amazing & you can eat as much as you want! My recipe is gluten free, dairy free & basically fat & sugar free too! It’s perfect with a cuppa, as part of dessert or even to take out with you as a snack. This healthy banana bread is so simple – you’re going to love it!

So banana-ry!

So I love baking. I’d bake every day if I could. Similarly to so many folk I aspire to have my own little café one day… I can keep dreaming right?!

I have definitely enjoyed baking even more in the past 5 years since gluten has been off the menu for me and dairy has been rather unpleasant for Mark.

Walking past the likes of Patisserie Valerie and seeing such beautiful baked goods makes us drool, but we know we must never taste… or suffer the rotten consequences. Instead such delicious bakeries and cafes inspire us to make alternatives that we can actually eat.

Since moving to Manchester there have been so many amazing places we have got our dose of gluten free and/or dairy free cakes from.

I have only got the chance to write about a few of the places so far, such as the amazing Tea 42, but the likes of V Revolution, Teatime Collective, Fuel and Classic Cakes are a few other delicious finds of mine, check them out when you have a chance.

However, although finding gluten free and dairy free cakes is a seriously great experience, myself and Mark have a few other little issues to contend with. As you know, we both suffer with the ‘wonderful’ problem of IBS. What causes an IBS attack for both of us can sometimes be similar and sometimes be very different. For me I really struggle with too much sugar in foods, whether that is natural sugars from fruit or more refined sugars. Mark on the other hand struggles more with fatty foods, so too much butter, nuts and fattier cuts of meat are all massive triggers. This leaves a massive problem for the pair of us and means we can’t indulge in our favourite gluten and dairy free cakes as frequently as we might like.

Such a delicious, moist texture

Instead, a favourite of ours is a tasty, healthy banana bread recipe I recently came up with. I have seen many Healthy Banana Bread recipes over time and many of them seem very healthy, but I wanted to go one step further and make it entirely gluten free, dairy free and safe for our stomachs! That meant no additional sugar – the only sugar coming from the bananas and a very small amount of apple sauce. Also the recipe contains no signs of any butter, margarine or oil. It seemed the perfect cake for us.

It is a very versatile recipe too. We like cinnamon in ours but you don’t have to. You could add nuts if you wanted to as well. For us we keep it simple. It tastes great cold with a comforting cuppa tea or, I have to say, I like to warm it up in the microwave with a little custard. This healthy banana bread loaf keeps moist and fresh for plenty of time, especially when, I guarantee, it will be eaten incredibly quickly. The combination of tasty and healthy makes you eat slice after slice… after slice!

I guarantee this healthy banana bread recipe will go down well with those who are gluten free, dairy free or not at all. It is a delicious, healthy banana bread that we can’t live without on a rainy, cold Manchester day. I hope you get the chance to give this a go too.

Super Healthy Banana Bread - Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Fat Free, Sugar Free

2015-03-17 09:48:10

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Ingredients

1. • 4 Ripe Large Bananas
2. • 4 Table Spoons of Apple Sauce (You might choose to add less if you wish)
3. • 200g Gluten Free Plain Flour
4. • 1 ¼ Tea Spoons of Gluten Free Baking Powder
5. • ½ Teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda
6. • Teaspoon of Cinnamon (You can add more or less of this, to taste)
7. • 2 Egg Whites

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Prepare a loaf tin (grease it or use baking parchment).
3. In a large bowl, mix together gluten free flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon.
4. Mash 4 ripe bananas. There is no need to make the bananas completely smooth, small chunks of banana give the bread a great texture.
5. Add the mashed bananas, egg whites and apple sauce to the dry mixture and stir thoroughly, just until combined.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes. Check the loaf is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre of the loaf and making sure it comes out clean.
7. Turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool before eating. (It takes a while but it’s worth the wait!)
8. Enjoy!!

Gluten Free Cuppa Tea - by Free From Food Blogger, Becky, UK. http://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/

Let me know if you do try out the healthy banana bread!

Thanks for reading,

Becky xxx

RECIPE - Super Healthy Banana Bread - Gluten Free, Dairy Free (No added Sugar, No Fat!)

RECIPE: Blueberry Gluten Free Sponge Cake (Dairy Free)

A tasty sponge cake is perfect for any occasion, it is so versatile. What makes it even more perfect is when everyone can eat it.. heres my Blueberry Gluten Free Sponge!

I made this Blueberry Gluten Free Sponge Cake as a birthday cake but it is the perfect cake for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter or just a day with no occasion at all. Love cake!

Gluten Free & Dairy Free!

So it was Mark’s birthday yesterday and seeing as there are only a few amazing places where Mark can enjoy a cake, (due to his lactose intolerance) and even fewer where me and him can together enjoy a cake (gluten free and dairy free combined is so rare at cake shops!); I decided to get up early and bake a gluten free, dairy free birthday cake!

When I headed downstairs I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to make, some sort of sponge but that was as far as it went. Upon looking in the fridge I noticed we have a large punnet of fresh blueberries, one of Mark’s favourite fruit, and I decided they had to be involved in the celebrations!

I have never been the greatest fan of using gluten free flour to bake cakes with. If the cake is for an occasion in the past I have used regular flour and just opted out of eating it so that others can enjoy it. But not anymore; if I bake a cake… I want to eat cake too!

So basically to make the cake edible for me I opted for using Dove’s Gluten Free Self Raising Flour and some Xanthan Gum; and to make it edible for Mark I used Pure Soya Spread and a small amount of Almond Milk.

I’ll describe the gluten free sponge cake briefly before I put down the recipe… Essentially it was a classic all in one vanilla gluten free sponge cake which I then added fresh blueberries to before baking. I sandwiched the two layers together with a soya based buttercream and a thick helping of blueberry jam. The fresh blueberries stick out and look very attractive on top of the gluten free sponge cake so I then just dusted it with icing sugar.

As the cakes emerge from the oven!

I really was surprised at how tasty the gluten free sponge cake looked and smelt upon coming out of the oven. The cake had a lovely golden colour with swirls of purple oozing out of the visible blueberries. The use of the Xanthan Gum clearly did its job as the cake was incredibly sponge like and had no chance of crumbling as soon as it is touched.

The gluten free sponge cake was light, airy and flavoursome, and upon cutting a slice the fresh blueberries were visible throughout each piece. Using soya spread instead of butter in the cake really didn’t make any noticeable difference in my opinion and the few drops of almond milk I added for extra moisture worked perfectly instead of regular cows milk.

The buttercream was possibly better and tastier, in my opinion, from using the soya spread than it usually is. It came together just as easily and was a delight to liberally spread. I added a few drops of vanilla to the butter cream and the flavour went really well with the blueberry jam. I must say, if you haven’t ever had blueberry jam before, try it… it’s a great change from standard raspberry or strawberry I think!

Blueberry Gluten Free Sponge Cake (Dairy Free)

2015-03-13 12:04:18

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Ingredients

1. 6oz Doves Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
2. 6oz Caster sugar
3. 6oz Dairy Free Margarine (I used Pure Soya Spread, but any will do!)
4. 3 Large Eggs
5. Few drops of Vanilla Extract
6. 2 tbsp of Almond Milk (if deemed necessary)
7. 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
8. 1/4 tsp Xantham Gum
9. Fresh Blueberries (However many you wish as a guide I used about 150g)
10. 3oz Dairy Free Margarine
11. 6oz Icing Sugar
12. Few drops of Vanilla Extract
13. Blueberry Jam

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and thoroughly grease your baking tins.
2. In a mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, dairy free margarine, eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder and xantham gum.
3. Using an electric whisk mix them all together until combined and light. (I found that by using the xantham gum, the mixture came together a lot more and thus sticking to the whisk quite a bit, don’t worry though the cake won’t crumble later as a result!)
4. Add a little almond milk to give a little extra liquid to the mixture and continue to mix till combined.
5. Evenly pour/spoon the cake mix into the greased tins and spread so its fairly level.
6. Lightly cover the fresh blueberries with a dusting of flour so that they don’t sink in the cake, and then as randomly or evenly as you like place the blueberries into the cake mix, gently pushing them in.
7. Place the cake tins in the centre of the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, the cakes should come out looking golden and risen.
8. After about a minute carefully turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack and leave to completely cool.
9. In the mean time, make the dairy free butter cream! Cream the dairy free margarine in a glass bowl.
10. Gradually add the icing sugar and drops of vanilla until all has been added.
11. Once the cakes are cool turn them over onto the plate/board/dome you wish to serve the cake from.
12. On the bottom layer liberally spread the butter cream and on the top layer liberally spread some blueberry jam.
13. Sandwich the two together and dust the top with a small amount of icing sugar.
14. Slice and enjoy ☺

Gluten Free Cuppa Tea - by Free From Food Blogger, Becky, UK. http://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/

 I was really pleased with the result seeing as I had never made a gluten free sponge cake exactly like this before. I hope if you give it a try you are equally as taken by it. Please feel free to give me any tips as to how I could improve the gluten free sponge cake or if you have any of your own recipes – I would love to try!

Thanks for reading,

Happy Birthday Mark!

 

Love Becky xxx

RECIPE: Blueberry Gluten Free Sponge Cake (Dairy Free)