Pumpkin Chai Banana Loaf

Due to the success of my Gluten Free Ratio Rally Sweet Potato Breakfast Loaf, I decided to upload another quick bread recipe that I’ve made. This recipe is based on a standard muffin/quick bread recipe except it is made with a twist–tea! Yes, tea :).

I’ve had the lovely opportunity to discover David’s Tea 🙂 David’s Tea has a lovely array of herbal, green, puerh, maté, black, and oolong teas. I am developing an impressive collection 🙂

I used David’s Tea Pumpkin Chai to help flavor my loaf 🙂

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons melted butter or neutral oil, plus more for the bread pan.

2 cups all-purpose gf flour blend
¼ cup sugar, or to taste
½ teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 banana
1 egg or 1/2 ripe banana for egg sub.
1 cup milk (or non-dairy sub.), plus more if needed
1tsp vanilla
David’s Tea Pumpkin Chai tea

Steps:

Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease the loaf pan.

Put on a kettle for a hot cup of tea. When the water is ready brew your tea to your desired strength. You want the chai tea to be strong because it will flavor your loaf :). Combine this with the melted butter and sugar. Place this in a pot and simmer it down to a syrup.

Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Once the syrup is made, mix it in a bowl with the vanilla, egg and milk. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it.

Use a large spoon or rubber spatula to combine the ingredients. You want to fold the ingredients rather than beat them together. The batter should be lumpy, thick and moist.

Spoon the batter into the bread pan. Bake your loaf for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Remove your loaf from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes before taking it out of the pan. Serve warm.

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A New Spin on Pizza

It is great to be able to get gluten free pizza when you are out on the town but there is something special about making pizza at home.

After a morning of coaching a local running group, I decided a pan of pizza would be a delightful reward.

I searched my cupboard for my ingredients and found that I lacked yeast. At first I thought what am I going to do but then I thought this is a time to be creative. I brought out my computer, googled some sites regarding gluten free, yeast free crusts and I found one that I creatively modified. The result of my effort lead to a crust made with chickpeas.

As you may know, not all gluten free grain products have a great amount of fiber but a good way to change this is to incorporate beans. To make this pizza, I used some chickpeas.

Here is my recipe:

Two cups all-purpose gluten free flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup water
1 cup chickpeas

1)Preheat oven to 350F

2) Mix the flour with the baking powder.

3) Place the chickpeas and water in a blender and blend until the chick peas are in the consistency of a purée.

4) Combine the chickpea purée with the olive oil and then combine it with your dry ingredients.

Your dough should be spreadable if it is not, add a bit of water until it is. Place your dough on a lightly oiled pan and place it in your oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. After you have browned your crust, free free to add toppings and bake for another 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Breakfast Loaf

I am so excited to share this recipe for The Gluten-Free Ratio Rally project 🙂  I was invited by Shauna James Ahern (author of the Gluten Free Girl Blog) to participate and I thought “Sure, this would be awesome!”  So what is this all about?  Well, even though I maybe new to the gluten free world, I have asked myself this question that perhaps many of you have.  Is it possible to bake gluten free without using xanthan or guar gum?  And the answer is yes!  The answer lies in using ratios.  Yeah, and you may have thought math wouldn’t be involved, but it’s the cold hard truth 🙂  The Gluten Free Ratio Rally is made up of a group of passionate cooks and bakers who are testing these ratios and using them to create delicious treats.  This month’s topic is quick bread.  We are  going by Michael Ruhlman’s ratio and it’s 2 parts flour, 2 parts liquid, 1 part egg and 1 part fat.

Sweet Potato Breakfast Loaf

2 oz gluten free oatmeal coarsely processed in a food processor

3 oz millet flour

3 oz all purpose gluten free blend (I used the The Gluten Free Gourmet’s basic gf mix)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 oz. coconut oil

8 oz. mix of sweet potato puree, date syrup* and milk

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350ºF/ 175ºC

Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.  In a separate container, mix the milk, sweet potato puree, date syrup and eggs.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Pour batter into a well-greased bread pan. Bake for 50 minutes.  Check for doneness with a toothpick.  When the toothpick is clean; it’s good.

* The recipe is listed in one of my posts.  You could substitute this with another liquid sweetener or add 4oz of sugar to your recipe (adjust accordingly if you find 4oz. of sugar to be too much).

This bread tastes lovely with homemade apple butter 🙂

Here are some recipes from our various participants:

Honey from Flinty Rocks Lemon Lavender Muffins with Lavender Sugar http://honeyfromflintyrocks.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/gluten-free-ra…lemon-lavender/

The Healthy Apple Gluten-Free Agave Apricot Quick Bread http://thehealthyapple.com/2011/04/06/gluten-free-agave-apricot-quick-bread-ratio-rally/

GF In The City Date & Walnut Bread

http://www.gfinthecity.com/2011/04/gluten-free-ratio-rally-quick-breads.html

Bell Wookie Double Chocolate Cherry Muffin

http://bellwookie.blogspot.com/2011/04/double-chocolate-cherry-muffins.htmlCaleigh / Gluten Free[k]

Cardamon Banana Bread

http://gluten-freek.blogspot.com/2011/04/cardamon-banana-bread.html

The G Spot Revolution Orange Spice Bread with a Vanilla Glaze

http://thegspotrevolution.com/?p=2639

Gluten Freedom Piña Colada Muffins with Coconut-Rum Glaze and Toasted Coconut http://www.thisglutenfreelife.org/2011/04/pina-colada-muffins-for-gluten-free.html

Sweet Dees Gluten Free Blood Orange Cardamom

http:/sweetdeesglutenfree.blogspot.com/2011/04/blood-orange-cardamom-muffins.html

Mysteries Internal Strawberry Yogurt Muffins

http://mysteriesinternal.blogspot.com/2011/04/ratio-rallied-strawberry-muffins.html

The Sensitive Epicure Chocolate Chip & Walnut Muffins w/ Streusel http://thesensitiveepicure.blogspot.com/2011/04/gluten-free-chocolate-chip-muffins-with.htmlFlo /

Makanaibio 2 Recettes de Muffins ou de Gateau Rapides

http://makanaibio.com/2011/04/pour-le-gf-ratio-rally-2-recettes-de-muffins-ou-de-gateau-rapides-sans-gluten.html

kumquat Gingerbread Fig Loaf

http://kumquat-blog.blogspot.com/2011/04/gluten-free-ratio-rally-gingerbread-fig.html

Eat The Love Gluten Free Glazed Meyer Lemon Muffins filled with Slow Roasted Balsamic Red Wine Strawberry Jam “http://www.eatthelove.com/2011/04/gluten-free-glazed-meyer-lemon-muffins-filled-slow-roasted-strawberry-jam”

Jenn Cuisine Chestnut and Chocolate Quickbread

http://jenncuisine.com/2011/04/gf-ratio-rally-chocolate-chestnut-quickbread

Cooking Gluten Free Muffins

http://cookingglutenfree.com/2011/04/gluten-free-ratio-rally-muffins/

Kate Alice Cookbook Raspberry Banana Crumble-Top Muffins http://katealicecookbook.com/2011/04/02/raspberry-banana-crumble-top-muffins-for-the-ratio-rallyKate

Gluten Free Gobsmacked Mocha + Chocolate Chip Muffins/Quickbread

Gluten Free Ratio Rally: Chocolate Chip Mocha Quick Bread

Celiac Teen Cocoa Quickbread

Cocoa Quickbread for the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally

Gluten Free Canteen Almond Cherry Berry Banana Muffins, Gluten Free http://glutenfreecanteen.com/2011/04/04/gf-ratio-rally…ns-gluten-free/

With Style and Grace Rosemary Lemon Quick Bread

http://withstyle.me/2011/04/06/gf-rosemary-lemon-quick-bread/

Family Fresh Cooking Strawberry Snack Cakes http://www.familyfreshcooking.com/2011/04/03/gluten-free-ratio-rally-strawberry-snack-cake-recipe/

Family Fresh Cooking Sweet Strawberry Snack Cakes http://www.familyfreshcooking.com/2011/04/03/gluten-free-ratio-rally-strawberry-snack-cake-recipe/

Gluten Free Cooking School Cranberry Orange Bread with Cream Cheese Icing http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/cranberry-orange-quickbread-by-the-ratio-how-a-new-recipe-is-created

The Wicked Good Vegan Vegan Gluten-Free Apricot-Orange Bread http://www.thewickedgoodvegan.com/2011/04/06/gf-apricot-orange-bread/

Mindful Food Almond Joy Muffins

http://mindfulfood.blogspot.com/2011/04/almond-joy-gluten-free-muffins-vegan_06.html

Nannette Raw Chai Muffins

http://nannetteraw.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/gluten-free-ratio-rally-cupcakes/

Chocswirl Brown Butter Apple Spice Muffins with Pecan Nut Struesel http://chocswirl.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/gluten-free-ratio-rally-brown-butter-apple-spice-muffins-with-pecan-nut-streusel-2/

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef Lemon Poppyseed Bread with Ginger Glaze http://www.glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-lemon-poppyseed-bread.html

Silvana’s Kitchen Chocolate-Coated Marshmallow-Topped Vanilla Cupcakes http://silvanaskitchen.com/2011/04/gluten-free-ratio-rally

A Baking Life Caramelized Banana Bread with Pecan Streusel http://abakinglife.blogspot.com/2011/04/rallying-again.html

La Phemme Phoodie Cheesy Apple Butter Bread with Garlic Powder http://laphemmephoodie.com/2011/04/cheesy-apple-butter-bread.html

Healthy Green Kitchen Banana Bread

http://www.healthygreenkitchen.com/brown-butter-banana-bread-gluten-free.html

Gluten Free Maui Old Fashioned Banana, Oat, Pecan Bread http://www.glutenfreemaui.com/2011/04/05/classic-banana-oat-and-pecan-quick-bread/