Recipe: Chocolate Banana Bread

Serves 6

Softened butter and white rice flour for preparing pan

3 large bananas, mashed

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup organic cane sugar

½ cup turbinado sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup sour cream

Dry ingredients:

1 cup teff flour

½ cup sweet white rice flour

½ cup sorghum or brown rice flour

½ cup tapioca flour

½ cup almond meal or hazelnut flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tablespoons demerara sugar

Optional: cream cheese

1. Preparing for baking. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. Flour the dish with a sprinkle of white rice flour.

2. Mashing the bananas. Mash the bananas with a large potato masher or fork and set aside.

3. Creaming the butter and adding the liquids. Mix butter with cane and turbinado sugars together. When they are just creamed, stop mixing. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream to the butter mixture. Mix in the mashed bananas.

4. Mixing the dry ingredients. Stir together the remaining dry ingredients, except the demerara sugar. Break up the lumps of cocoa powder with a fork. Set aside.

5. Combining everything. Using a rubber spatula, fold dry ingredients into the wet batter, ¼ cup at a time, until everything is just mixed together.

6. Baking the bread. Scrape the dough into your pan. Top with the demerara sugar, covering the surface of the dough. Place in oven and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted gently into the center of the bread comes out clean.

7. Cooling and serving: Let bread sit in pan for 5 to 10 minutes, then turn it over onto a wire rack. Serve warm, with cream cheese, if you wish.

Note: Many supermarkets with well-stocked baking ingredients, and stores such as Whole Foods, carry the flours and xanthan gum used in this recipe. Bob's Red Mill is a good brand to look for.

From "Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back ... & How You Can Too" by Shauna James Ahern