Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Banana Bread

This is no surprise: 

I ride my bike a lot. All. The. Time. Bike. Bike. Bike.

Even today, National Bike to Work and School Day, I will pedal to the farmer's market with a big goofy grin.

I really can't get enough of the my bikes. I have been recently a little obsssed with my road bike, spending a majority of my miles on pavement (gasp! This soon may change as we move to a place that has trees and not sage brush).

Hitting 50 mph going down hill is a pretty liberating in a white knucle sort of way.

High speed cornering with gravel keeps my sences sharp, I have been known to say a little prayer as I push through the turn. It works.
 
Keeping up with the dudes makes me want to ride harder, passing each one with great intention.

This is no surprise: 

I eat a lot. I need fuel to make these little legs go when I want to pass everyone on the climb.

Bananas are packed with hill crushing power.

I buy a lot of bananas and try and eat one a day. Sometimes I get forget to eat them, they turn sweet, then make ice cream with them instead. Ice cream is way better than a boring banana. This peanut butter banana bread is up there with banana ice cream, honestly.

This is no surprise:

I crave bread every moment of the day. Any kind of bread will do, even gluten-free. I like my carbs.

This is no surprise: 

I eat peanut butter with a spoon. Sometimes I need a reason to get the jar out of the cupboard, banana bread was the perfect excuse for a peanut butter bender. Peanut butter is manna.

Peanut butter banana bread, get on board.

 

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Banana Bread

 

Inspired by Joy the Baker 

Makes: one 9×5-inch loaf

Use crunchy or smooth peanut butter in this recipe, you know what you like.  I made this gluten-free using Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten-free flour, you can and you will be totally pleased or subsitute 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour.

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)

1/3 cup plain fat free yogurt

1/3 cup all-natural peanut butter

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 large eggs

3/4 cup agave syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten-free flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseed meal

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, flaxseed meal, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, whisk together  mashed bananas, yogurt, peanut butter and melted butter.  Whisk in vanilla,  eggs and agave syrup.  Blend mixture until no lumps remain.

Pour the wet mixture into the larger bowl with the dry ingredients.  Fold together with a spatula until no more flour bits remain.  

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and cake for 50 to 65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Mine baked on the shorter end of the time spectrum.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before running a butter knife along the edges of the pan and inverting the bread onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This bread lasts, well wrapped at room temperature,for up to 4 days.  It is also great to store, well wrapped, in the freezer.

Blissing out in Bellingham

It is such a nice day out - SUN - just breaking sixty degrees - blue skies. I have my running pants and wind shirt on, trying to summon some motivation to go out and play, or at least walk the dog around the island. I know the weather is about to change, change for a long winter. Instead, I am finding every excuses not to step foot outside (sorry Natasha) and the biggest excuses is that Bellingham and all its great parties gave me a cold and my body aches awfully bad.

When I was a child I never lost my appetite when I got sick, and still to this day I get sick and try to eat it away. I sit here today and just tried to vanish a cold through some comfort food. Today the choices have been less than productive to a compromised immune system (what - a bag of Sun Chips can't be that bad - I am just saying - garden salsa in a compostable bag).

Yesterday I had company in trying to win over the cold by feeding it sweets and creamy spicy tea in a fancy new little bakery/coffee bar/wine/beer/port cute and cuddly space.  My sweet friend and Bellingham hostess for the weekend ventured down to Pure Bliss Desserts, a friends' newest addition to the core of Bellingham's downtown. 

Pure Bliss is the cute, hip, fancy, and welcoming intimate gathering spot that Bellingham can use. Open in the evenings, we can now venture out for a slice of cake (chocolate of course) and a glass of port, pure bliss (that is if I was still in the frumpy town). I can't forget, one of the best parts of this experience is that the dear writer of One Hungry Soul (she is a gem) a local, here in Bellingham by choice (it seems) is the cuttie pie behind the counter along with her darling younger sister. Do I have your attention now!?!

The colors are cohesive, crisp and cheerful while creating a warm space dotted with glittering chandeliers and pulled together with fresh flowers. The selection of dessert ranges from bars, a handful of cakes, a few cupcakes and several choices of cookies. I had a molasses cookie that was a texture that I enjoyed, not too sweet, buttery, or heavy. It was gone in just a few minutes, I approve. I brought John home three different varieties of short bread (the verdict is yet to come in).

Next time you happen to be wandering the streets of Bellingham, pop in and give the ladies a warm smile, they are sweet as the treats and cute as can be.

Cookies couldn't make me feel better, savory chips didn't do the trick, I needed to bake something myself. I needed something out of my (temporary) kitchen. I needed banana bread. I made banana bread. I put flax in it because I needed crunch and it makes the dough pretty.

Tuck this away. It soothes colds, with butter it can comfort a hangover. Tuck it away. 

Banana Bread
Makes one 9-inch loaf

Adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
If you don't own this book yet, get it, thank me later. 

The key to great banana bread is ripe bananas. If your naners are yellow, which are too starchy to cook with, you can give them a 15 minute sunbath to really bring out the sugars that have develop in brown, ripened bananas. When you start to preheat the oven, plop the unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet in the oven and let them roast for 15 to 20 minutes, remove, cool slightly and peel. Sweetness!

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas, 1 1/2 cups mashed
6 tablespoons butter slightly melted
2 large eggs
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup whole flax seed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.

2. Whisk flour sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the mashed bananas, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla together in a separate bowl. Gently fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture with a spatula don't forget the flax. Do not over mix, just let it be bumpy and frumpy.

3. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake until golden brown and the tooth pick inserted into the center comes out close to clean, about 50 - 55 minutes.

4. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack for an hour.

Enjoy!