My wife doesn’t ask for much.  Some months ago she asked me to make her banana bread.  It had to be vegan – naturally.  It also had to be gluten free, low in calories and low in fat.  In addition to all of that, I wanted it to be simple to make.  So, no pressure!

This recipe is the result of several generations of experimentation, and I’m very happy with the final result – and so is she!

I make this using two bowls – a medium size one for the wet ingredients and a large one for the dry.  I put each bowl on the scales, zero the scales, measure out an ingredient, zero the scales again, measure out the next ingredient, and so on. That’s why most of my ingredients are measured in grams!  Much less fuss than measuring everything into separate dishes first.  Much less washing up too!

I slice the loaf into 16 slices (it rises quite well), and by my calculations, each 50g slice has;

• 93 Calories
• 0.63g Protein
• 13.38g Carbohydrate
• 4.44g Sugar
• 0.62g Fibre
• 1.04g Fat
• 0.25g Saturated Fat
• 0.01g Trans Fat
• 0.45g Monounsaturated Fat
• 0.28g Polyunsaturated Fat
• 18.78mg Sodium

Obviously, the nutrition will depend on the exact ingredients you use.

If you don’t need the recipe to be gluten-free, you can use normal plain flour.  If you want it to be soy free, I’m sure rice milk or almond milk would work just as well.  We don’t like it to be too sweet, so you’ll notice the sweetness in this recipe comes from the maple syrup, apple sauce and of course the banana.  There’s no reason you can’t add sugar or sweetener if you feel the need.  Just like any recipe, use it as a starting point for your own experimentation!

Vegan, gluten free, low calorie, low fat banana bread

Wet Ingredients

• 125ml (1/2 cup) non-dairy milk (I use So Good Fat Free Soy Milk)
• 30g Maple Syrup
• 70g Apple Sauce
• 60g Vegan Margarine, melted (I use Logicol Extra Light)
• 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• Two large very ripe bananas, mashed well with a fork

Dry Ingredients

• 200g Plain Flour (I use Orgran Gluten Free Plain Flour)
• 70g Cornflour
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Allspice
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder (I use Wards Gluten Free Baking Powder)
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F.  Grease a 20cm loaf tin or similar (I actually use a bread tin with straight sides) and line the bottom with baking paper.

In a medium size bowl, combine all the wet ingredients except the mashed banana.  Beat thoroughly with a whisk until the mixture is a little foamy (say, 60 seconds), then add the mashed banana (no need to mix it through, as we’ll do that shortly).

Sift all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl, then add the wet ingredients to it.  Stir well with a wooden spoon to combine.  You should end up with a fairly dense and sticky dough.

Pour / scrape the dough into the prepared loaf tin, and spread and smooth the mix by gently using the tines of a fork (this will help it rise more evenly).

Bake for 60 minutes.  Then insert a skewer, and if it comes out clean, it’s cooked – otherwise, give it a few more minutes.  As a rule of thumb, if it has shrunk away from the inside edge of the loaf tin, it’s cooked.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the tin (remember to remove the baking paper from the bottom) and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Although delicious as it is, this banana bread is even more delicious toasted and spread with margarine!