Gluten free banana loaf

Popped together this lovely gluten free banana loaf the other day, as I had a couple of bananas that didn’t look great and it was the perfect way of using them up. I followed the BBC good food ‘Brilliant Banana loaf’ recipe, just switching a few ingredients to make it completely gluten free. Love the BBC Good food site for excellent and reliable recipes. They do have a dedicated gluten free section (as with my site, always double check the ingredients you use to make sure gf). But, also many of their standard recipes can also be adapted to make them gluten free – just as I have done for this banana loaf!!

The original recipe suggests water icing and banana chips on the top of the loaf, but instead I sprinkled demerara sugar over the mixture before baking, which resulted in a delicious sweet crunchy topping!

I have experimented a couple of times with this recipe since I put my original post on, as I wanted to see if it would work out by using the very simple ‘all in one method’. And great news….it worked a treat! So not only is the cake gorgeous, but it can be rustled up in no time at all too!
 

Ingredients

140g butter – as always, I like to use Lurpak full fat spreadable butter!

140g caster sugar

1 teaspoon of *vanilla extract

2 large eggs

140g gluten free self-raising flour or mix (I’ve used Lidl and Sainsbury’s gf flour and also made it with Juvela gluten free mix)

1 teaspoon *baking powder (you don’t need to add this if you use gf self raising flour)

2 ripe medium bananas, mashed

1 dessertspoon of demerara sugar or soft brown sugar
 

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4/Fan 160C

Grease and line or pop a ready-made greaseproof loaf tin liner into a 2lb loaf tin.

Pop all the ingredients (except for the demerara sugar) in a large bowl and beat together with an electric mixer  (I just used a hand held one) until light and creamy.

Transfer the mixture into the lined loaf tin, even the top out with a rounded knife or the back of a spoon.

Sprinkle demerara sugar over the top of the mixture and pop into the oven

Bake for about 40 minutes and then check it’s done by gently pressing the top of the cake. It should feel quite firm but still nice and springy!

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes before taking out and popping onto a cooling rack.

So, impressed with this gluten free banana loaf and of course that’s why I wanted to share it with you – it’s lovely just as its come’s, but also works well spread with a little butter and enjoyed with a hot cuppa. For the ultimate treat, slightly warm a nice chunk of the cake, add freshly sliced banana, a scoop of a good vanilla *ice cream and a generous drizzle of hot butterscotch sauce!

Found the banana loaf is best to be eaten up within a couple of days – but don’t worry if you don’t manage to polish it all off, as it can be frozen for a later date!

Liz x

*Check this product out to ensure no gluten containing ingredients or ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ warnings on the pack. If in doubt leave it out!