I love a banana bread and I didn’t make one for a while. One of the reasons is that the gluten free versions that I tried in the past, sourced from online recipes, usually turned out very
dry and close-textured. I needed to try and make it a Low FODMAP banana bread.
This time my challenge was not only to create a gluten free, but also a sugar free loaf. It is not about a natural sugar, coming from an unriped bananas, but ADDED SUGAR in a form of for example a white sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup etc.
I reached for a “Healthy Baking” book by Teresa Cutter and I found a recipe there for a gluten free banana bread, but unfortunately it used a coconut flour, which is high FODMAP.
It had to be replaced with my own blend of gluten free flours and swapped honey for erythritol, to have no added sugars as well as avoid honey which is high FODMAP. Also, I added some walnuts for a crunchy topping.
The result is a lovely, moist banana bread, with a bit of crunch coming from the chia seeds in the loaf and the walnuts on the top.
This recipe has been approved by a Low FODMAP dietitian, Evelyn Toner. Find interesting articles about Nutrition, IBS and FODMAP on her blog.
Ingredients for a banana bread loaf (12 slices):
400 g unripe bananas 6 eggs 90 g erythritol (sweetener) 1 tsp. vanilla extract 60 ml extra virgin olive oil 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 2 tsp. gluten free baking powder 25 g of each: millet flour, yellow corn glour, potato starch flour, together 75 g. 2 tbsp. chia seeds 40 g walnuts
Instructions for a banana bread:
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (fan). Line a loaf tin.
Mash unripe bananas in a large plate, move them into a large bowl. Add the eggs, sweetener, vanilla, olive oil, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix well with a whisk. Add the flours and chia seeds and mix it well again. Leave for 15 minutes (at least). Chia seeds need to absorb some of the liquid. Pour the batter into a bread tin. Sprinkle with walnuts. Bake for 1h until cooked through – you can check with a skewer, if comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing.