B-A-N-A-N-A-S

 I got to baking my gluten-free banana loaves and finished off the browning nanners.  Here's a play by play.

The competitors: #1 v #2

The playing field

The Judges

I started with an extensive google search and used very scientific means to choose the recipes to try.  By that I mean I used ones with the simplest ingredients and fewest steps.  I also tend to favor recipes from blogs.  Something about "knowing" the person who posted the recipe, even in the slightest sense of the word, makes me trust it a little more.  Here are the recipes and the results.  Enjoy!


#1: Gluten Free Banana Bread from Gluten-free Girl
I left out potato starch and used brown rice flour instead, and since I spent so much grocery money on stocking up on the pricier GF flours, I skipped the extravagant ginger; I also subbed maple syrup for sugar.  Still was pretty tasty.  

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
 2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 large bananas)
1/4 cup full-fat yogurt (or sour cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup crystallized ginger
Preparing to bake. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a loaf pan (the usual size). Melt the butter on low heat. Set it aside to cool. Sift the four gluten-free flours into a large bowl. Stir in the xanthan gum, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir them all up together. In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir until they are just combined. (If you are using a stand mixer for this, be sure to mix until the liquids are just combined. You don’t want to over-cream the liquids.) Slowly, sift the dry ingredients into the wet batter, until everything is just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and crystallized ginger. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan. Smooth the top.
Baking the bread. Slide the loaf pan onto the middle rack in the oven. Bake about 45 to 50 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and a knife slides out of the bread clean.  Cool the bread for 10 minutes in the loaf pan, and then tip it out, slowly. Allow it to cool before you slice your first piece. (well, good luck.)

#2:  Gluten-free Banana Bread from A Gluten Free Day

(I made a couple changes to the recipe, so what is below is slightly different from what she has on her page)

Dry ingredients

- 1/2 cup quinoa flour

- 1/2 cup sorghum flour

-1 cup or 2,5 dl ground almonds

-2 tsp (gluten-free) baking powder

-1 tsp cinnamon

-1 tsp ground cardamom

- a pinch of nutmeg

-a pinch of salt

Wet ingredients

-3 eggs

- half a cup of maple syrup
-3 very ripe bananas

-1 tsp vanilla exctract

-1/2 cup melted butter

Heat an oven to 340F.

Grease a bread pan and sprinkle some almond meal on it, or just line it with baking paper.

Mix the wet ingredients together and mix the dry ingredients together.

Combine these two without over mixing them.

Bake for approximately 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I think they both win