As much as I love creating my own recipes, I’m always on the lookout to be inspired and try out existing ones. Bananas are one of my staples when it comes to healthy baking as they add a natural sweetness and moisture, meaning you can cut down on fat and sugar in the recipe which is always a bonus!
So when I was challenged to recreate a gluten-free, no added sugar banana cake recipe from HelloFresh as part of a collaboration, I was up for giving it a go and seeing how it would turn out – especially as I’ve made many a banana loaf recipe myself. Rather than using flour this one uses coconut flour, which in my experience has sometimes resulted in disasters as it soaks up so much liquid and the recipes has ended up being very dry and crumbly. It’s scarred me a bit so I used half coconut flour and half brown rice flour just to be safe 🙂
You can see below the original recipe and how I adapted it, and let me tell you, I was so happy with the result and my toddler also absolutely devoured it! Soft and sweet, not too dry or crumbly and a wonderful banana and subtle coconut flavour. Perfect drizzled with chocolate, spread with almond or peanut butter, served with berries and a dollop of coconut yogurt, or warm with custard or ice cream for extra indulgence 😉
Banana Blueberry Loaf
Ingredients:
- 2 ripe bananas (I used Fyffes)
- 100g coconut oil, melted (I used Lucy Bee)
- 2 eggs
- 1 vanilla pod
- 75g coconut flour (I used The Groovy Food Company)
- 75g brown rice flour (I used Indigo Herbs)
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1-2 handfuls blueberries
- 30g dark chocolate, melted (I used Montezuma’s)
- Flaked almonds, to decorate (I use Whitworths)
Get baking!
- Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease and line a loaf tin.
- Place the bananas, melted coconut oil, eggs and vanilla in a blender (I used my Ninja Kitchen) and whizz up until smooth.
- Mix together the flours, cinnamon and baking powder in a bowl. Pour in the banana mixture and stir to combine.
- Spoon into the loaf tin and smooth out evenly. Scatter over the blueberries on top and push down slightly. Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden and risen slightly, Leave to cool in the tin then pop out and slice.
- Drizzle over dark chocolate, sprinkle over flaked almonds – and enjoy!
