Holy smokes! I'm back! The kiddies and I flew out to visit family and it was an incredible trip. The sun feels a bit closer to the Earth in the most southern part of Canada. I don't know if I can properly express how much I miss the way the morning mist swirls across fields to wrap up the trunks of solitary trees dotting the corners of bean, corn and wheat fields. I don't always catch this mist because by a decent time in the morning it has begun to burn up, only to work itself around the stems of flowers and trees and blanket the crickets as dusk settles.
I would not be a proper food blogger unless I mentioned the food. Oh, the food. My mom has a beautiful and tremendous garden and rest assured I took full advantage of it at mealtime. We had stuffed eggplant, fried green tomatoes, and just a plethora of fresh herbs that were clipped from the plants just steps from the door. The city is beautifully multicultural as there are sushi restaurants next to gluten-free bakeries, some of the best dim sum I have ever eaten (although there is an incredible place at the bottom of our street), Caribbean restaurants where the heat of the food heats the sidewalk. The cheese section at a privately owned grocer nearly made me cry, the variety of goat and sheep cheese was immense and a very helpful worker walked by my side to point to each cheese and explain its origins.
Upon returning home and after a good rest - did you know that staying up all night with your older brother at a campfire will result in you being incredibly tired? Who knew. But then, it won't really matter if it's the first time you've had the chance to properly hang out with him in a long time and you haven't even seen him in a few years.
After a tremendously long sleep and a day of blindly watching television I finally wandered back into the kitchen. The result was a perfectly moist banana bread with just a hint of cinnamon and gorgeous plump raisins. When baking banana bread, whether it is gluten-free or not, that sucker can dry out on faster than you would expect. At the one hour mark of baking, you will really need to start to keep a sharp on that bread otherwise you could have a pool of batter in the very centre or a dried out log.
The Recipe
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (about 4)
2 tsp. pure vanilla
10 g millet
20 g amaranth
40 g almond flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. guar gum
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
20 g plump raisins
1. Pre-heat oven to 350.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar. Add vanilla. Once the butter is smooth, mix in the mashed bananas and the eggs.
3. In another bowl mix all of the dry ingredients.
4. Add the dry to wet ingredients, mix well. Finally, add the raisins. Pour into a loaf pan. I didn't grease the pan because of the added oil coming from the almond flour.
5. Bake for 1 hour, perhaps 5-10 minutes more depending on your oven.
