Paleo Banana Bread

A couple of months ago, I made a gluten-free banana bread. 

I'll be honest, it was so tasty, but the texture and rise, eh, It was just alright.

This one though, is awesome. 

I've made it every sunday the past 3 weeks and it's just delicious.

To be perfectly honest, if you didn't know it was paleo ... you would not know that it's paleo. 

Like, for real. 

I also loooove that the only sweetener is 4 medjool dates and a tablespoon of maple syrup. 

The keys to truly making it awesome

=

mini loaf pans

+

greased parchment

+

cooling / resting on a wire rack

I know these may be things that you are probably thinking, "Oh, I can skip that, no biggie"

You're wrong, my friend. You need to do them. 

The parchment allows excess moisture to escape from the bread, and allows you to easily get the loaves out of the pan so you can place them to rest on a wire rack (where yet more moisture can escape).  The smalls loaf pans also allow the bread to rise more and gives a great texture. 

Click through for the recipe !

strongly adapted from: Make it Paleo

(i've changed up some of the steps/details on this- this it truly key to having a well risen and not too wet bread...trust me)

1/2 c coconut flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

6 eggs (*brought to room temperature by sitting in a bowl of HOT tap water for 5 minutes)

1/2 tbsp vanilla

4 medjool dates (pitted)

1tablespoon maple syrup

1/4 c melted coconut oil

1/2 c overly ripe bananas (this is about 1 & 1/2 bananas)

+ 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips. (paleo-cheat!)

+ 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 

Preheat oven to 350 & prepare the pans: cut parchment to fit two mini pans (along the bottom and up the sides). Spray pan with baking spray, add parchment, spray again. 

Smash and measure banana and set aside. For the dates, you prepare a little "mixture". Pit the dates, add 4 tbsps of HOT water to the dates and the tablespoon of maple syrup and smash them into a smashed up mess. I use a butter cutter in a metal bowl to do so.  I then combine the date mixture with the bananas. 

In bowl of a stand mixer, beat the room temp eggs and vanilla together. Add the banana/date mixture and beat until combined. 

Remove the bowl from the mixer and then stir in the dry ingredients (I sift them together in a bowl, and then mix into the wet ingredients. Also, measure the flour, then sift.)

Stir in melted coconut oil.

Fold in optional chips and nuts.

Bake on 350 for 45 minutes. once out of the oven, allow to rest for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and place on a wire rack to finish cooling. 

ENJOY!