Banana & Coconut Bread

Makes 1 x 22cm (dairy-free and gluten-free) loaf

This banana loaf is one of my favourite on-the-go breakfasts. The ripe bananas make it beautifully sweet with a smooth texture that will just amaze you, and the middle, packed with coconut and banana bites, is very moist. The sides are slightly crusty and sweet while the top has a heavenly flavour of soft, caramelised banana. The combination of almond meal, desiccated coconut and buckwheat flour adds heaps of fibre to this bread and it will definitely keep you going until lunchtime.

Ingredients

• 50g almond meal (½ cup)
• 100g buckwheat flour (²⁄³ cup)
• 150g desiccated coconut (1¼ cups)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 very ripe medium-sized bananas, roughly mashed (about 350 g mashed)
• 3 eggs
• 100 ml light virgin olive oil or vegetable oil or rice bran oil or liquid coconut oil (½ cup)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 fresh banana, to decorate
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons honey or liquid sweetener of your choice to enhance the sweetness, depending on how ripe the bananas are, optional

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan-forced.

Grease a 22 cm x 12 cm loaf tin, or line with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and vanilla essence with the mashed bananas until everything is well combined. (Add sweetener here, if used.)

Add to the dry ingredients, stirring as you go, a little at a time. When all the flour has been thoroughly incorporated, pour the batter into the greased loaf tin.

Peel and slice the fresh banana, lengthwise.

Place the two slices of banana on top of the bread, pressing them slightly into the batter.

Bake for 40–50 minutes, or until the banana bread is golden brown and the banana pieces on the top of the loaf are caramelised.

Insert a skewer into the bread: if it comes out clean, the loaf is cooked.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Slice the bread once it has cooled to room temperature.

Store wrapped in a clean tea towel to retain the moisture.

Tip - for a beautifully sweet banana loaf with no added sweetener, choose very ripe bananas which have black spots on their skins.