My grandmother used to make this phenomenal banana bread that was right out of her southern heritage. Adapting this for GF has been a challenge and I have gone thru several variations with horrible outcomes. (not even worth recording here) But this last one turned out pretty good for GF bread. Muffins were, obviously, instead of the standard bread loaf that was called for in the original recipe.
Grandma Hazels Original Banana Bread Recipe
3 bananas (brown and overripe are best)
1 cup sugar
1 cup nuts (walnuts seem to taste best)
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/2-tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2-cup butter
2 Tbsp buttermilk
Directions: Preheat over to 350-degrees. Dissolve soda in buttermilk. Cream butter with sugar. Add remaining items – eggs, bananas, flour, buttermilk mix, and nuts. Grease and flour pans. Bake at 350-degrees for approximately 50 minutes. (Note: pans should be filled slightly higher than 1/2-full)
This recipe creates terrificly moist bread that is just full of gluten – bad for me. So in my latest variation here is what I modified: instead of 1 cup white sugar I used 3/4-cup white sugar and 1/4-cup brown sugar (moister); instead of 1-tsp baking soda I used 1.5-tsp and dissolved it in the buttermilk; I used sea salt instead of regular table salt; replaced the flour with generic GF baking flour mix.
While these changes did well and were worth keeping the 24 lovely muffins it made – there are some remaining aspects of the final product that I will change with the next variation. First, the muffins were moister than usual but still crumbled more than I like – it can be very tricky replacing that vital gluten in bread products. (see pic below for example of flaking) Second, GF flours tend to have this grainy texture and requires more moisture AND lift – so I will most likely increase it to 1/4-cup buttermilk and 2-tsp of baking soda. Lastly, I will probably follow the advice for many GF breads and mix all the dry ingredients first – then add all the moist ingredients. Overall, this definitely was a much lighter product than the last batch I made – and I attribute that to the baking soda. Now all I seek is that final bit of moisture to hold it all together. I’ll let you know what happens with the next batch.
