Coconut flour makes this gluten-free Coconut Banana Loaf super coconutty - and gluten-free. A combo of roasted sweet potato and bananas is all you need to sweeten this hearty snack.
Coconut Banana Loaf Recipe
I've been in a bit of a cooking rut lately, keeping my head down and making my grocery lists and substituting a different fruit or vegetable or two each week to keep things somewhat interesting. Still cooking every day of course -- meat sauce with spaghetti and steamed broccoli on the side; a double batch of granola every 7-10 days; different soup; Thursday soup night; weekend burger night; etc. etc. And then I'm not really baking much so there's nothing too exciting going on in that department either. So I haven't felt like writing here I guess because there isn't much to write about.
But then ... there's always a "but then" ... but then I made a coconut banana loaf that ticks all the boxes -- gluten-free, sugar-free, made from real-food ingredients, plus it tastes like a real treat -- that's suddenly become my go-to snack (in addition to the raw Australian macadamia nuts that I'm currently so enamoured with) that I knew I had to share it.
I took the recipe from shutthekaleup's instagram post for a banana-sweet potato loaf, changed just a few tiny things, and it is so good, so truly, honestly, deliciously perfect, with slices topped with peanut butter or eaten plain that I have started making a loaf a week for those hangry moments in between lunch and the girls' snack time.
This was my first time using coconut flour and I will definitely try some other recipes with it. I wonder if these could be baked as muffins; the resulting loaf is quite sturdy and not as crumbly as some baked items made with almond flour (my usual go-to non-flour option) so it might be worth a try.
It's winter time here so the wool socks are readily available and the heat is flicked on in the early mornings to infuse our huge house with a bit of warmth. [I wrote something here yesterday about The Future but I'm deleting it for now because ... trying to be in the moment at the moment. Time for all of that later!] And I'm not saying I won't make this loaf come spring and summertime too but for the moment, it's just perfect for these chilly Australian days.
Coconut Banana Loaf
Ingredients
- 1 small roasted sweet potato purple/Japanese potato, insides removed after cooking
- 1 small ripe banana
- 3 large eggs
- ⅓ cup almond butter or peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup optional
- ½ cup coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
- ½ cup flaked almonds
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350℉ and grease a standard-size loaf pan with coconut oil then line with a parchment paper sling.
- In a large bowl, mash the sweet potato and banana together. Add eggs, almond butter, vanilla, and maple syrup and whisk and stir to combine well. Stir in the coconut flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Add the chocolate (or reserve to sprinkle on top, as I’ve also done).
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate, if you didn’t stir it in, and almonds over the top evenly. Place in the oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove, let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.
- Store the loaf, sliced, in a container in the fridge for up to a week.
Lisa says
Yikes, autocorrect!
Lisa says
Oh, Nicole! Another move! I can't even imagine. I can imagine a little, since we've just done one, but not really - our several moves have felt nearly too many to me, but they've been spread out over closer to ten years.
Seeing this recipe title made me think of the coconut loaf you wrote about years ago, in a post about Nuala O'Faolain's My Dream of You. I nout the book uses off Amazon because of you! And I got well into it but then got distracted (perhaps by a move!) and didn't finish it. But that wasn't gr biok's fault and I'd very much like to try again! I think of you every time we move and I find that book a spot on the shelf in our new home.
Have also been experimenting a bit with coconut flour. Will definitely try this!!