Banana Pumpkin Gingerbread
Dairy-free, gluten-free
I have lost count of the number of banana breads I have made. It is just one of those things that I always crave on the weekends and I always have bananas around. However, I like to jazz it up a bit sometimes and this is one of those times.
When holidays roll around and my family gets together for brunch, we all look for something sweet to balance out the meat onslaught (a German father means a lot of meat always). While I always reach for chocolate or cookies, this bread would be the perfect post-meat-mania treat or even stand as the centerpiece itself.
A cross between your traditional banana bread, a little seasonal gourd and a traditional holiday cake, this bread gives you a wonderfully dense, moist crumb, sweet banana flavor, molasses richness and warm spice. Not to mention that it is gluten-free, dairy-free and full of oaten goodness.
Black Bananas
I will never understand why people skip over the mottled, spotty bananas in the grocery store. These ‘ugly’ bananas are the sweeter in the bunch. When it comes to baking banana bread of any kind, you want the skin to be as brown as possible. Once they are brown, bake with them or stash them in a resealable freezer bag and stick in got freezer. Let the frozen bananas thaw out in the fridge. As they thaw, they release water; don’t throw it away. That water is full of natural sweetness, flavor and moisture.
If you are using the brown bananas right at room temp (without freezing beforehand), peel the bananas, toss in a heatproof bowl and microwave for 1 minute. This starts to break down the bananas a bit and, in my opinion, intensifies the flavor.
Molasses
When I think of molasses I think of the bitter-sweetness as well as the great molasses spill in Boston. True story. I digress. Molasses is a byproduct of the sugar refining process. As the raw sugar cane is refined, the naturally occurring molasses is drawn out. Hence why you get lighter colored cane sugar. Brown sugar, in the US, refers to refined cane sugar that has the natural molasses added back to it.
There are two main types of molasses: dark and blackstrap. The dark molasses is the result of taking the natural molasses from the sugar cane and boiling it down. This gives a mild bitterness as well as sweetness. Blackstrap molasses is boiled down even more than the dark molasses. This means that the bitterness is more assertive and milder in sweetness. Most molasseses sold in the United States are the dark molasses and that is what I would recommend using.
If you really like that molasses flavor, give the blackstrap a try. You may want to start with a little and then add more if you need to.
Flour Mix
There are a lot of pre-made gluten-free flour mixes. While they work great, I find that they do not really add much flavor the baked goods. I like to make my own mixtures, using flours that have more flavor as well as a bit more nutrition.
Oat flour is a great gluten-free flour and is the closest in flavor to whole wheat flour. Oat flour is the perfect flour to start with and do most of the work. Adding teff flour boosts the nutty flavor and adds a bit of protein. White rice and tapioca flours are both very starchy. In this mixture, they are helping to bind everything together, add a little chew and give you a denser loaf.
These flours are part of my gluten-free pantry staples. I highly recommend adding them to yours for the holiday baking season. You can buy oat, white rice and tapioca flour at most grocery stores. Teff flour is a little harder to find in stores, but you can buy it online. I go for Bob’s Red Mill for all my flours.
Spices
When I went to see my family in Germany, my great aunt Rosemary took me to a spice shop. The woman who owned the store took me down aisle after aisle filled with tins of spices. Rosemary made sure that I took home some traditional spices and her formula for the best holiday cookie spice. Her formula is in this bread.
Cinnamon and ginger are two of my favorite flavors. They each have their own type of heat. Cinnamon is toasted, rich spicy warmth. Ginger gives a floral, sweet and smooth spiced warmth. Together they are pure magic. But they do need a little bit more oomph added when molasses is in the mix. Cloves are the answer. Cloves have a very distinct, bitter, sweet, slightly acerbic and, of course, heat.
This trifecta of spices gives you the flavor and spiced warmth that you want for a gingerbread-like bread.
Alright. It is baking time. Oh, one more thing. If you want, this bread can be made into muffins. Use standard muffin pan and reduce the baking time to 25-30 minutes.
Let’s bake!
Recipe
245g (2 large, approx) overripe bananas
152g (about 1/2 cup) pumpkin puree
56g (1/3 cup) olive oil
100g (1/3 cup) molasses
123g (1/2 cup) light brown sugar (you can substitute coconut sugar if you prefer)
1 large egg
130g (3/4 cup) gluten-free oat flour
42g (1/4 cup) white rice flour
36g (1/4 cup) teff flour
35g (1/4 cup) tapioca flour
101g (1/2 cup) gluten-free rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
Plus additional oats and sugar to top.
Preheat the oven to 350F and liberally grease a loaf pan (I like to use a Pullman Loaf pan).
In the bowl of a food processor, add the bananas, pumpkin, oil, molasses and brown sugar. Blend until smooth and blended, about 2 minutes, add the egg and blend again until incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients to the food processor and pulse to get the mixing going, after 3 pulses, blend on high for 2 minutes. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and top with a sprinkle of oats and sugar.
Bake for 55-60 minutes, until the center is firm and bounces back when touched. Let cool completely before slicing.
This bread is deliciously dense and moist. It is wonderful on its own, drizzled with tahini, schmeared with cranberry sauce (we always have some left over).
To store: wrap with a kitchen towel or foil and keep at room temperature for a week. You can chill the bread overnight in the fridge, slice and then freeze the slices for ready to go breakfasts.