Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Gluten Free& Fat Free Chocolate Banana Bread

Now this is a simple banana bread made with brown rice flour and which I twisted a bit and added chocolate.I have been looking(googling) for some brown rice flour recipes courtesy Madhuram and most of them had xanthan gum in these which was used as a thickner.Now continuous search led me to a forum in cookinglight and I found a banana bread recipe there which was from Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan.The recipe was not only gluten free but vegan too. My adaptation is vegetarian as I have used dairy product and avoided oil to make it fat free and I also added chocolate to the batter and tried to give a swirled look.


Ingredients:
Dry Mix:
Brown Rice Flour: 1 cup
Baking Soda:1/4 tsp
Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Nuts: I used pecans: chopped 1/4 cup
CornStarch:1.5 tsp

Wet Mix:
Banana: 1+ mashed.
Maple Syrup:1/3 cup
Vanilla
Egg or Vegan Egg : 1 .I used Ener G egg replacer though you can use flax meal as well.
Soy/Rice/Normal Milk or Buttermilk: 2 tbsp I used normal milk



Semi sweet/milk/ dark Chocolate: 1 ounce + as per taste


Preparation:
In a big bowl mix the dry items of flour,soda,baking powder,chopped nuts,cornstarch and salt together.


In the blender or food processor,first add slightly chopped/mashed bananas and blend till almost smooth.To this add the egg/vegan egg,vanilla,maple syrup and milk and blend to get a puree.I allowed few chunks of banana to remain in the wet mix.


The original recipe used 4 tbsp of veg oil.I replaced it by using around 4 tbsp of mashed banana or half of a normal sized banana.Hence the 1+ in the estimate of banana.If you want it richer then use 1 banana and tbsp of oil or melted butter.

Add the wet mix to the dry mix and stir until combined.


Melt chocolate in the microwave or double boiler,whisking to smoothen and allow it to cool slightly.To this fold in half the batter to obtain a chocolatey batter.


Grease a loaf pan and spoon alternately both the batters .I started with only banana batter and then chocolatey one.After spooning the batter tap the pan or use spoon gently to spread the batter within the pan.Atlast with a knife/spoon swirl the batters to obtain a marbled look.If you feel this is too much of work or are not interested,then pour the batters as you like into the loaf pan.
The layers are like this...


The swirled batter looks like..

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 40-45 minutes or till the tester in the middle comes clean.Mine took exactly 40 minutes.Also another aspect I noted was the bread after baking pulled out from the edges of the loaf pan.It is..



Take out and then let it sit in the loaf pan for 10 or so minutes after which transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.


I must say that the top of the bread looked marbled,but when I sliced it,it was not that marbled.Also I think the bread should have been baked in a smaller dish or muffin pans or mini loaves,as it does not look like it had risen into a normal size loaf.

The bread was soft and moist and a bit crumbly as I had cut it before it cooled completely.

I wanted to take pics and was in a hurry.These days,its a wonder if something comes out correctly from the oven.The power cuts here are atleast three times a day with each time ranging from 1-2 hours and each day its a different time.So going near the oven itself feels like a risk.Add to this risk is the internet connection problem which makes me believe that I am living in prehistoric city or something even before indus valley civilization (atleast Indus people had well defined roads and infrastructure) rather than Indias IT city.But yes,I should be thankful to the wireless broadbands.They work most of the time but are expensive.And it any of you missed me last week (I hope atleast one of you did ) ,then its because of my short trip to my native,combined with the above mentioned problems.

Sorry I got carried away,I was too happy with my bread and all these came out.I am also happy to share the bread with Madhuram for the Whole Grain Baking Event : Rice and also with Jamie for MM:Bread and Chocolate,an event originally by Meeta.

13 Comments:

FH said...

WOW! You can make Bread with Rice flour? That's wonderful, looks well puffed too. I would think rice flour makes everything dense but you proved me wrong. Great recipe, helps people who are allergic to Gluten! :)

Nithya said...

Wow this is something interesting for sure. :)

Rachel said...

rice flour in bread..nice

Vanamala Hebbar said...

Cool ... very nice

Unknown said...

Its really YUMMY!!!and nutritious too. Your cooking recipes are more helpful for those who are trying out new experiments with food.

Work From Home India

Priya Suresh said...

I have almost finished my brown rice flour packets, enjoyed baking with brown rice flour this time, bread making with rice flour sounds really fantastic and the bread looks marvellous..Great bread for gluten allergic peoples..

Cham said...

I never thought rice flour will do wonder! Very interesting gluten free recipe!

Jamie said...

I think it's brilliant when people can take a recipe and turn it around to fit their personal eating style. A delicious banana bread with chocolate, pecans and maple syrup that everyone can enjoy. I love those flavors! Thanks so much for baking for my Monthly Mingle.

Tina said...

Healthy and delicious banana bread...

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

Sounds guilt free and a very nice cake would love to dig in!!!

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Divya Kudua said...

Just like everyone else..me too wondering if bread can be made with rice flour.Looks so good..chocolate and banana are truly an irresistible combo:)

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

This bread is quite an achievement, especially as its fat-free!

Is brown rice powder what comes in packets, like "puttu" flour?
Didin't know things were so bad here. In comaprison I may be in the back of the woods, but we don't have power failures and the net is up almost all the time. :)

Madhuram said...

That's a great recipe Sweatha and thank you very much for your concern. Hope you got my mail.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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