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Banana Bread

February 22, 2012 by Tali

Happy Banana Bread Day!

This is most definitely an American thing. I’ve never before heard of banana bread day… but I’m all for embracing the festivities!

I decided to make mine primal. That means no wheat flour or sugar.

6 months to go until my wedding, and I need to get myself sorted! I’ve kinda set myself the challenge of keeping 100% primal for a whole month. I’ll see how that goes, with the intention of extending it out to the next 6 months and beyond.

Superficially, I want to look good great in my wedding dress but, ultimately, I want to live a healthier lifestyle. This includes eating right and getting the correct exercise.

I know from personal experience that if I try jumping straight into anything that forces a massive lifestyle change too abruptly, I fail. So I’m not going to force myself to get into an exercise regime right away.

I’ve been eating the majority of my meals primal for quite some time now, although not being 100% strict. Indulging in too many cheat meals… which turn into cheat days by just giving in to temptations around the house. It’s one of my downfalls and I am determined to resist! Still living at home with the folks and not being able to control what’s in the kitchen cupboards can be frustrating and often difficult, but I have no excuses anymore. It’s all about willpower and a genuine desire to do this right!

So my plan for the next 4 weeks (I started Monday) is to get my diet in order. Get myself into good eating habits, eating clean, and slowly working-in Mark Sisson’s recommended exercise.

A whole day of shopping counts as low level aerobic activity… right?!

Enough about me – more about the food!

I looked through a number of paleo and primal friendly banana bread recipes. I decided after much deliberation, that the recipe I liked the sound of best, was the one posted on Mark’s Daily Apple.

[This also could have had something to do with me having all the ingredients to hand…]

It’s a simple recipe, with a small list of ingredients. I love the idea of using few ingredients. To me it makes the food less complicated and for some reason makes me think it’s healthier. The simpler the better right?

I found the recipe here.

Primal Banana Bread

Makes: 1 Loafย ย ย  Time: 40mins

Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch sea salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup butter – melted
2 eggs
2 well ripened bananas (the riper they are the sweeter they are)

  • Preheat oven to 180 C or 350F
  • combine the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Almond flour, baking powder, sea salt and chopped walnuts
  • break eggs into another bowl, and lightly whisk until the eggs are completely broken up.
  • mash the bananas
  • add the bananas and melted butter to the egg mix
  • pour the egg mix into the dry ingredients, and gently fold until the mix evenly comes together
  • transfer into a lightly buttered loaf tin
  • bake for around 30mins (check after 25mins)

For come reason my dad thought it would be a great idea to buy a huge amount of walnuts the other day… so I threw in a whole cup of chopped walnuts, instead of the 3/4 cups suggested in the original recipe.

I think it made for a more textured and wholesome bread.

Now, I made this loaf last night… and the temptation to immediately devour it was incredibly difficult to resist. However I had to wait – because photographing this baby cannot be done at night. And so it wasn’t until this morning that I was able to slice into it.

It was well worth the wait!

It’s been a while since I’ve eaten banana bread of any sort but – if I remember correctly – this tastes practicallyย  identical to your ‘normal‘ banana bread. Pretty cool when this is loaded with healthy nuts, fruit and good fat, instead of being laden with gluten, sugar and other nasty stuff.

Make yours, let it cool for a while, and then cut yourself a slab slice, spread some butter (or a primal friendly nut butter)onto the warm tasty banana bread, and enjoy – with a cup of tea or coffee. Maybe have it as part of a meal… perfect with some scrambled eggs.

Mo enjoyed his slice with melted chocolate (90% cocoa solids) poured over the top. Made me regret not throwing chocolate chips into the mix, or maybe a dash of cinnamon… Damn!

This banana bread is YUM! It’s also quite filling – and I like this fact. Especially as I found however tempted I was to cut myself a second slice, that I just didn’t have the room for it!

Now that I’m trying to keep things 100% primal, I’m quite keen on having healthful treats around, just in case I feel the need for something sweet or indulgent. But obviously not too many because any treats, healthy or not, should not be over-eaten.


44 Comments »

  1. adit says:

    100% primal- hardcore! I can def see how this banana bread might help, it looks great! YUM!

  2. Damian says:

    uuhmm this banana bread is lovely for breakfast now.

  3. sabryna says:

    This one I might attempt on Sunday when I am possibly at the parents ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. Emma says:

    ahhhhhhh this looks amazing!! I realise I’ve just left 2 comments on facebook and one here… I’m not a stalker I promsise. Just so impressed with your blog and BEAUTIFUL photos… they show off your bakes wonderfully!! Good work love ๐Ÿ™‚ xxxx

  5. Andrea says:

    This is gorgeous! That pat of melting butter makes my mouth water. Please post more beautiful paleo friendly recipes!

  6. Tali says:

    Thanks Russ ๐Ÿ™‚
    Andrea – stay tuned, for I have a growing list of primal/paleo recipes I want to make!

  7. Julia says:

    I’ve been toying with the idea of going ‘primal’ and breads like this make it seems so feasible! It truly looks perfect!!!!

  8. This recipe looks awesome… can’t wait to try it. Good luck on your primal journey – Hubbie & I just started our 3rd year – never felt or looked better! The first few days/weeks might be a bit hard, but the more you continue the better you will feel, and you won’t want to go back!!

  9. Sam says:

    just wondering if there is a substitute for the walnuts. Could i maybe use gluten free choc chips?

    • Tali says:

      Hi Sam! You donโ€™t have to use walnuts, I guess its just more traditional to add walnuts to banana bread. You can most certainly add choc chips! In fact, the other day I made a loaf and added some chocolate chips โ€“ it was delicious! Let me know how yours turns out! ๐Ÿ™‚

  10. cat jones says:

    SOOOO excited to see this recipe. Never ever thought of going primal, but this may very well persuade me…so sick of the gluten and sugar in everything…literally sick…thanks for sharing! Can’t WAIT to try it!!

    • Tali says:

      Hey cat! Its actually amazing how people don’t link feeling bad to what they eat! I would highly recommend at least trying Primal out. See how you get on… but I’m pretty certain you’ll find yourself feeling a TON better! Let me know how you get on!

  11. Laura says:

    Mine turned out too dry….I couldnt use almond flour so i substituted White rice flour….could that have done it

    • Tali says:

      Hi Laura, I’ve not baked very much with rice flour, but I’m pretty sure you would need to use a lot less rice flour than almond flour if substituting. Rice flour is probably a lot more absorbent than almond flour (much like coconut flour). so I would suggest trying to reduce the amount of rice flour, or adding a liquid like coconut milk to the mix. – Hope this helps ๐Ÿ™‚

  12. I love gluten free recipes that don’t have 5o ingredients. This is so simple and uses ingredients I have in the house. Can’t wait to try it. It’s my first time on your blog, and I’m subscribing. Hope you’ll come by and visit me

    • Tali says:

      Hey Judee! Glad you’re liking the recipe & the blog ๐Ÿ™‚ It really is so simple, completely delicious and a great recipe to throw together at a moments notice! I’ll stop by your website as soon as I’m done writing this reply! ๐Ÿ™‚ … like now!

  13. Krista says:

    Hi, I made this banana bread today and used almond meal…. Is this the same as almond flour? I found the consistency not quiet right would probably add an extra banana and egg…. Oh and a few dates would be great to! But aside from that I still really enjoyed it and look forward to trying more of your recipes ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Tali says:

      Hey Krista! Almond meal and almond flour are the same thing ๐Ÿ™‚ Your problem with the dryness of your bread could have something to do with the size of your eggs and or bananas. I tend to use (British) large eggs, which are around 55-60g whereas a medium egg is around 50g; similarly bananas can vary in size immensely. Hope that helps!

  14. Megan says:

    Do you think it would still turn out well if I omit the walnuts all together? My family is primal and we have been hankering for a dense banana bread for awhile now, but we are not so fond of chunks of nuts in baked goods…

    • Tali says:

      Megan, I’m sure it will turn out just fine without the walnuts. You could always add in some raisins or chocolate chips if you want something in there. But the walnuts don’t have any part in the consistency of the mix, so get creative, or keep it simple ๐Ÿ™‚

  15. Krista says:

    Thanks heaps Tali I will give it another shot ๐Ÿ™‚

  16. Joel says:

    Im making this now, I’ll let you know how it turn out! :-S

  17. Janet says:

    The recipe ROCKS. Easy, not too many ingredients for a super tasting bread. I slice it up when cooled and have a plastic freezer container I can place the slices in, freeze and just take out one when I need a snack. I also tried making “french toast” with it and very yummy. I passed this on to a friend for her family yesterday and here is what I got back via email today:”OMG, THAT BREAD WAS INCREDIBLE! ” Ha. So there you go. I just make sure I keep bananas around and raw almonds I process myself into meal. This recipe will be a staple for me and my husband.

    • Tali says:

      Janet, I’m so glad you like the recipe! I’ve been meaning to try making french toast out of it, but whenever I get round to it, I find there’s no more left! I’ll have to start making double batches!

  18. Umi says:

    Thanks for this recipe! I made it last week and it was great! My kids liked it too. I used pecans and dates rather than walnuts because it’s what I had. The bread was heavenly warm. It has a nice texture and terrific taste. It’s nice to have a natural low-sugar treat.

  19. […] Recipe fromย http://macnifique.com/?p=316 […]

  20. Kathie says:

    Hi, This sounds fanastic. How big a loaf does it make ? And do you have the carb counts on it? Thanks

  21. […] why not try making a primalish banana bread with your iffy bananas – last weekend I made this one Banana Bread Macnifique! muffin sized. I made it for DD to take for school occasionally (stored in the freezer individually) […]

  22. Eileen says:

    I live in Colorado… I’m thinking I need to put in some coconut flour as it was pretty wet at 35 minutes.. put in in for another 10… very moist but it looks like Oatmeal on top. It tastes good but will try again with some Coconut flour for the altitude adjustment.

    • Tali says:

      Hi Eileen, It might be a good idea to test out the accuracy of your oven temperature. With my oven I have to set the dial to 150c for it to actually be 180c. But if you were happy with the final result and it tasted good, maybe it would be a good idea to lower the oven temp very slightly, and bake for a little longer? If you’ve tried adding more coconut flour I’d love to know how that turned out for you!

  23. Don says:

    Got a loaf that just came out of the oven sitting on a cooling rack. I am just learning paleo baking. Thanks for the great recipes at the site. Now, can I wait until tomorrow for a taste? I followed the recipe, but chopped some dates and had some black currents to add. Got so carried away with the mixing and pouring into the baking dish that I completely forgot to fold them in. Next time. I also used ghee instead of butter. I make it from organic raw butter.

  24. Don says:

    The bread came out great. I am making another loaf tonight. I have dates, black currants and cranberries. I’m thinking that might be a bit much. Might wind up with a fruitcake. If it lasts long enough for a photo op, I’ll send a pic. Love the recipe.

  25. Don says:

    Started craving the banana bead last night and it was a good excuse to try out my new robot. I had the dry ingredients mixed and the eggs whisked when I realized I had no walnuts, so I subbed chopped raw macadamia. Then discovered I was low on ghee, so I used coconut oil. I had three black bananas, so in they went. instead of two. Found a bag of dark chocolate chips and added them to the mix. It came out excellent. My best effort to date. I was worried about the coconut oil overpowering the banana, but after it cooled it’s taste wasn’t detectable. It all blended together nicely.

    • Tali says:

      wow! banana, choc chips & macadamia nuts… sounds delicious! from what I can tell this is a pretty adaptable recipe! So glad I’ve inspired so many people to have fun and experiment in the kitchen!

  26. Suzie says:

    I used one cup of almond flour and 1 cup of coconut flour and also used coconut milk instead of butter!!! I also put in the walnuts. ๐Ÿ™‚

  27. slava says:

    This came out delicious I almost forgot that it’s a low carb recipe I added some low sugar craisins as well.

  28. […] bars but with these items off the menu now I needed to come up with some new ideas. So I tried this http://macnifique.com/?p=316. It turned out great and was really filling. Will definitely be using the recipe again this […]

  29. […] This is what I’m about to stuff my whole body with. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s not over banana-flavored which sometimes is overwhelming. It’s the perfect amount and then the chocolate chips and walnut pieces mixed in, YUM!! So let me get to the recipe. I came across it on chowstalker, which brought me to here. […]

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