I usually eat a lot of bananas, lately however I don’t seem to be in the mood for them anymore. I had two bananas which had been sitting on my kitchen counter for a while and had become quite ripe. And I just can’t stand ripe bananas. I find them too mushy and sweet. So what do you do with them? Well banana bread of course! Apparently banana bread recipes first made an appearance during the Great Depression as a way for housewives to use over ripe bananas avoiding them going to waste. Isn’t that fascinating? Like the housewives of the Great Depression I too did not want my bananas to go to waste and got to work on my GF and low FODMAP banana bread. I made a cranberry and walnut banana bread; much fancier than what you’d expect back in the 1930’s.

Cranberry and Walnut Banana Bread (makes 1 loaf)

serves 8. 1 slice is low FODMAP. You use unripe bananas to further lower the FODMAP content.

Ingredients:

• 2 small ripe bananas, mashed (200g)
• 1 egg
• 60g unsalted butter, softened
• 90g caster sugar
• 100g GF All purpose flour (I used Doves Farm plain gluten free flour)
• 30g corn flour and 20g corn starch OR 50g Dr.Schar GF pastry flour mix
• 1/4 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 teaspoon gf baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
• splash of almond milk, approx 1 teaspoon
• 40g dried cranberries, soaked overnight in water
• 30g walnuts, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together using a K-beater or a wooden spoon like they did in the olden days. I used a wooden spoon because well that’s how they did it in the 1930’s..well not really, it’s because I do not own a K-beater. Cream until it’s pale and creamy.
3. Sift the flour and add the mixed spice, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a separate bowl.
4. Add the egg, mashed bananas and a few tablespoons of the flour mixture to the creamed butter.
5. Add the flour little at a time and mix well after each addition and add a splash of milk.
6. Mix in the walnuts and dried cranberries.
7. Grease a loaf tin or line with grease proof paper.
8. Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for approx 50 minutes. To test if it is cooked insert a skewer into the centre and if it comes out clean it is ready.
9. Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes then continuing cooling on a wire rack.

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My banana bread cracked, most likely due to the oven being too hot. The oven I have is quite old and the temperatures and oven setting have been erased therefore I tend to bake a bit on the blind. I do have an oven thermometer but usually it takes me a long time to find the right temperature! So hopefully yours will be crack free.