GF Banana Nut Bread

For Christmas as usual I sent homemade baked goodies to my family. I always send something a little different each year and this year's box of goodies had my seriously awesome GF Banana Nut Bread.

The recipe is the one that came with my bread machine,...a practically brand new machine that I lucked out and found at a yard sale a couple of years ago for only $10! It's been one of THE best investments.

The only differences I've made to the recipe have been to convert it to gluten free. GF bread can be very tricky and sensitive, often prone to falling/sinking in after baking and thoroughly frustrating you as you pull it out of the oven looking amazing only to watch it sink into something barely resembling decent bread.

But this recipe is extremely easy and practically fool proof! The loaves rise up really nicely...AND stay that way! This bread freezes really well too!

I've made it inside my bread machine letting the machine do all of the work, but most of the time I let the bread machine do all of the mixing and then I pour the batter into regular loaf pans so I have nicer looking loaves when they're done, without the hole for the mixing wand from the machine in the bottom of the loaf.

And I usually don't let the bread bake inside my machine because my daughter EJ hates nuts, so I usually separate the batter into smaller loaves to make some with nuts and some without.

This bread is a weekly staple in our home! IK and I especially eat it all the time! I love to have a slice or two for breakfast with a cup of hot tea, and IK loves it when I put a few slices in his lunch topped with crunchy peanut butter.

After treating my family to this yummyness for Christmas I promised to pass along the simple recipe, so here it is.

GF Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients

1 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

2 cups bananas, ripe and mashed (about 4-5)

4 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed (or regular brown sugar)

1 cup walnuts, chopped

3 cups all purpose flour (or for GF version: 1 1/2 cups white rice flour + 3/4 cup tapioca flour + 3/4 cup potato starch all premixed well together, and 2 tsp. xanthan gum)

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. salt

Since this recipe comes from my bread machine, all you have to do is simply dump in all of those ingredients into the bread machine in the order listed above. Here you can see the milk, oil, banana, and eggs just all dumped in together.

And then I keep dumping all the other ingredients on top. If you don't like nuts you can simply omit them. Or if you plan to make several smaller loaves you can mix all of this without the nuts, and then separate the batter after mixing and add the nuts to part of it.

Simply set your bread machine to the dough only setting and stop it after the dough is fully mixed together. If you don't have a bread machine you can just dump all of these ingredients into a large bowl and mix thoroughly...but wait to add the nuts at the end.

I picked up a pan that makes 4 small loaves at W*l-mart (shown below). I've also made this in 2 regular size loaves, and in really mini, bite size loaf pans where the pan makes 12 or 24 little tiny individual pieces. The only trick with larger or smaller loaf pans is to just be careful with your baking times as smaller pans will take less time to bake.

As I mentioned, EJ doesn't like nuts, but she also doesn't eat this bread as much as IK and I do, so after my bread machine is done mixing the batter, I spray the pan with cooking spray and pour the batter into 1 loaf spot all the way to the top of the spot, then I pour the rest of my batter into a bowl, add in the nuts and mix well, and then fill the other 3 loaf spots in the pan.

It may not look like you'll have enough batter left for the other 3 loaves at first, but remember when you add all the nuts it will increase the total volume of your batter quite a bit. Fill the 3 remaining sections of the pan as shown above.

You should make sure to preheat your oven to 350 degrees, but once your oven is ready there's no need to let this batter rise or rest at all, you can simply pour it straight into the pan and place the plan right into the oven.

For the 4 smaller loaves like I have here, bake at 350 for about 30-35 min. For 2 larger pans bake at 350 for 55-60 min., and for really small pans you still bake at 350 just watch and reduce those baking times. Every oven is different, so be careful and watch the times until you know what works for your oven.

Above is how my loaves looked right after I pulled them out of the oven. The one loaf on the bottom right is the one without nuts, but as you can see it still rose really high just like the rest of the loaves.

Let the loaves sit in the pan for at least a few minutes to cool slightly. Shown below are how my loaves looked about 5 min. later. They sunk just slightly, but not much.

Remove from pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Here my loaves have been sitting out for a while and are fully cooled, but you can see they still keep an awesome shape.

Once the bread is completely cool, slice up and store in a ziplock bag in the fridge. If you don't eat a lot of this bread you can store 1 loaf in the fridge and freeze the rest until ready to eat.

We go through this bread so fast that I almost never freeze any, but if it were just me eating it, then I would still make a full batch and freeze some just because I don't have time to bake as often and I prefer to bake in larger batches to save time later.

I use my electric meat slicer to cut up these loaves because it works so nicely and because as I mentioned we go through a LOT of this bread.

Above you can see how high and nice the banana bread looks without nuts, and below it's sliced up with nuts.

And there you have it, really easy to make & seriously delicious bread. Give it a try & let me know what you think!

Our 1st GF Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving we were planning to have a very low key day with Scott and Christa coming over to hang out, do a bunch of sewing, and maybe another movie night. But at the last minute those plans changed and, very long story short, we ended up hosting dinner for 14 people!

***Warning: extremely long post to follow.***

Did I mention this was very last minute? As in, I found out we were hosting that many people around 6:00pm the night before Thanksgiving??!!! Fortunately I was at the grocery store at the time and simply planned to make more. The biggest challenge was making everything totally gluten free for the very first time (and the added pressure of all of these people coming over to eat it and hoping these brand new recipes I had never tried before would actually turn out edible!).

Before we could begin any of the massive cooking plans, we had to figure out some additional seating in our tiny home. I bought a fold up table and set of 4 chairs to add to our dining table and also picked up these barstools...which we also need to use in the P90X program on one of the videos. Of course, they were a very light wood color, so I picked up some cans of black spray paint and went to work. Voila!

While everyone else worked on cleaning up the house, EJ was my absolutely amazing assistant cook! Here she is cracking and peeling the eggs for my family tradition of Pickled Beets & Eggs. It's an old German dish, and for us it's simply NOT Thanksgiving without it!

 

I grew up eating this and simply love the fact that my kids love this dish too, and now I'm passing on those extremely fond memories to them. They get so excited when I make this. A can of sliced beets mixed with hard boiled eggs and seasoned with apple cider vinegar and sugar until it tastes just right. Don't let this awful picture fool you, it's seriously a DELICIOUS dish!

Next up was the GF stuffing, a totally new recipe. Last year at a get together with some friends one of them made stuffing with sausage and apples...something I had never heard of before, and it was unbelievably good. So when I went searching for a GF stuffing recipe I made sure to find one with those ingredients.

It also had onion and celery mixed in with the Italian sausage, apples, and bread crumbs and it beats old store bought boxes of stuffing hands down!!! This stuffing recipe was the BOMB! And it made a TON of stuffing, even with all of those people, I saved half of this dish in the freezer and we still had leftover stuffing, which I ate a lot for the next 4 days after Thanksgiving.

The process involved a LOT of cutting and chopping all of those fresh ingredients.

For the bread crumbs I made a loaf of Pamela's bread mix, sliced and cubed it up, and then seasoned it and toasted it in the oven to harden into bread crumbs. These would also make great croutons!

 

When it was done, it was seriously amazing!

GF Stuffing: 

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

5 cups chopped onion (about 3 large)

2 cups chopped celery

6 cups diced cored tart green apples (such as Granny Smith)

1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

5 1/2 cups Ener-G stuffing/croutons, gluten free (Or you could toast a loaf of your favorite GF bread until it's hard and cube it yourself).*

Directions:

1. Sauté sausage in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through, crumbling sausage with back of spoon, about 10 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to large bowl.

2. Add butter, onions and celery to skillet; sauté until onions are tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Add apples; sauté until apples are tender but still hold shape, about 10 minutes. Add sage, thyme and allspice; sauté 1 minute.

4. Add to sausage. Stir in stuffing cubes. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.)

5. Preheat oven to 325°F. Generously butter a baking dish. Transfer stuffing to prepared dish. Cover with foil and bake until heated through, about 40 minutes.

*GF Croutons:

Chop up the loaf of bread into cubes. Put the cubes into a bowl and drizzle the olive oil on top to just slightly coat the bread and mix. Add a pinch of sea salt, black pepper. Mix and add 1/2 Tbs. garlic powder, 1 Tbs of Italian Seasoning and 1 Tbs. of Thyme. Mix well and then put it on to a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden brown and toasty.

Okay, next up was the GF green bean casserole, because cream of mushroom soup and cans of French fried onions both contain gluten. So I began with making the homemade cream of mushroom soup. Then, I bought fresh onions and sliced them up in rings. EJ coated them in milk and a GF flour blend and gave them to me to fry up in a large pan.

 

Drying off in a paper towel, adding a little Lawry's season salt, and these onion rings tasted AMAZING! Even EJ who hates everything was an awesome sport and actually tried these AND she actually really liked them! They'd be perfect as a snack themselves with some fry sauce for dipping!

Then we added these to the green bean casserole, following the typical recipe instructions to bake.

Green Bean Casserole w/French Fried Onions: 

Large Onions, peeled and sliced in rings

Enough Milk for soaking onions

1 1/2 tsp. Salt

1/8 tsp. White Pepper

gluten free flour blend + xanthan gum

oil for frying

Directions:

1. Put the sliced onion rings in a bowl and cover in milk, let soak while you prepare everything else.

2. Put about an inch or so of oil in a large pot or pan and allowed it to get hot. You will know if the oil is ready by flicking a few drops of water into the oil and if it sizzles, it’s ready.

3. Put a few of the pre-soaked onion rings (allow excess milk to drain off) into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir to coat. Place onions in the hot oil, a few at a time and allow to cook for a couple of minutes. Repeat until all of the onions have been cooked.

Green Bean Casserole:

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup (or GF equivalent)*

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon soy sauce (La Choy is GF)

Dash ground black pepper

4 cups cooked cut green beans

1 1/3 cups French Fried Onions

Directions:

1. Stir the soup, milk, soy sauce, black pepper, beans and 2/3 cup onions in a 1 1/2-quart casserole.

2. Bake at 350°F. for 25 minutes or until the bean mixture is hot and bubbling.

3. Stir the bean mixture.Sprinkle with the remaining onions. Bake for 5 minutes or until the onions are golden brown.

*Cream of Chicken or Mushroom Soup:

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp potato starch

3 ½ cups chicken broth

1 cup light cream or milk

2 cups finely chopped cooked chicken

For cream of mushroom soup, omit cooked chicken and instead add one 4oz. can chopped mushrooms

Mix all together in a large pot in order listed until thickened. Be careful to sprinkle in the potato starch to avoid clumping.

Next up, LA practiced her ironing skills on the tablecloths, I threw a can of sweet potatoes in a dish and later covered them with marshmallows for simple yams.

Meanwhile one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is that I never have to cook the turkey! In fact, I never even have to touch it! Last year for Christmas we splurged on this really nice, oil-LESS turkey fryer that cooks all kinds of meats, and makes an amazing, juicy turkey in about 2 hours! It's also incredibly easy to clean up with no giant oil mess, I love it!

SD decided to flavor half of the turkey with lemon pepper and the other half with BBQ sauce. They didn't mix strangely as you might think, and despite the photo nothing was burnt. It was totally perfect and awesome!

 

In the turkey picture above you can just barely see my attempt at some GF rolls, which turned out to be much more like biscuits and slightly burned on the bottom, so we threw them out, but nobody cared since there was so much other food to eat.

Moving on, I went to work on some GF pies! One pumpkin and one pecan, I'd never made a pecan pie before and ended up making a double batch of filling for the big 9 inch pie crust.

I rolled out the dough onto some wax paper which made it really easy to flip over into the pie dish. Then pinching the edges to make it look pretty.

Here's the first pie shell all ready to go. I forgot to stop and take a picture of the pumpkin pie as I was hurrying to finish everything, but you can see it in some upcoming pictures below.

Pecan pie ready to bake.

And then baked, delicious! Now, my only complaint on the pies was that I swear I can taste some very slight, weird, almost indescribable aftertaste in the crust...almost like a bean flavor of some kind, which makes no sense since there's no bean anything in them.

SD and the kids loved the pies, couldn't taste anything like what I described, and thought I was smokin' something for saying so, so I guess as long as they were happy I'm good.

GF Pie Crusts (makes 2):

2 1/4 cups of gluten-free flour blend*

about 1 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1 egg

4-6 Tbl cold water

*GF Flour blend: 2 parts white rice flour to 1 part tapioca flour and 1 part potato starch

Directions:

1. In a mixer blend the first three ingredients until butter is incorporated. This will take a few minutes - you want it nicely mixed without being overdone.

2. Add the egg and blend until it's mixed in. Add 1/4 cup cold water. Dough should begin to form a ball. Add more water if needed until dough reaches a firm, yet pliable state.

3. Remove from bowl and press into an oval. If dough is a bit too dry, you can sprinkle water on top and knead it into the mixture.

4. Divide into two equal size pieces and roll each piece out on a floured surface. I suggest rolling this out onto parchment paper, waxed paper, or even plastic wrap. You'll want the extra stability the surface will give when it comes time to placing the crust into the pie plate.

5. Once crust is to desired thickness, turn a pie plate upside down over the crust and then lift up the entire mat, plate and all, and turn it over so the plate bottom is sitting on the counter. Gently peel your mat away and then press the crust into the plate. If it tears, no worries, take the torn piece and just press it into place. Flute the edges and you're done.

6. If you're baking the crust separately from the pie, poke the bottom and sides with a fork multiple times before doing so. Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly golden brown. Let cool and then fill with your favorite pie filling. Recipe makes 2 - 9" pie crusts.

For Pumpkin Pie: follow the directions on the back of the can of pumpkin (everything else was enough work already, so I opted for simple pie, not totally from scratch with an actual pumpkin).

For Pecan Pie: (I had to double the filling to fill the pie crust)

1 unbaked 8 or 9" gluten-free pie crust

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pecans plus about 20 whole pecan halves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425° F / 218° C

2. Add eggs, sugar, salt, corn syrup, melted butter and vanilla in a blender jar and pulse several times until mixture is combined.

3. Add 1 cup pecans and pulse once or twice, just until pecans are coarsely chopped.

4. Pour filling into prepared pie crust and place remaining pecan halves around the top of the filling. 4

5. Bake in 425° F / 218° C for 15 minutes and then lower oven temperature to 350° F / 177° C and bake an additional 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the pie is lightly browned.

6.Cool on a wire rack before serving. Yield - 6 to 8 slices

When all the housework was done the kids laid around watching movies and waiting for guests to arrive.

The table was set. I pulled out my beautiful china I inherited from SD's grandmother. The set only has 8 settings, so last year SD found some awesome matching china with silver trim to increase the set. It doesn't have the fine detailed flower etching of the original set, but when you space them out on the table with every other plate it blends in perfectly!

My kids loved sitting up on the new barstools at the counter. Oh, see that bowl on the far left? Yeah, those are some homemade candied almonds I made early that morning for the very 1st time, they turned out AMAZING, and we snacked on them all day long while cooking. And they've been specifically requested to be made again, often, and esp. at Christmas.

So, turkey SD made in the fryer...check.

GF stuffing...check.

GF green bean casserole...check.

Gravy SD made from the turkey drippings mixed with some cornstarch and GF chicken broth...check.

Mashed potatoes, simple...check.

Sweet potatoes, simple...check.

Pickled beets and eggs...check.

GF rolls...bombed, but I don't care.

Candied almonds...awesome!

Tons of sparkling apple cider, cranberry juice, and sodas...check.

GF pumpkin and pecan pie with cool whip...check.

The guests arrived:

And a KILLER amazing meal was had by all!!!

Time for clean up.

Playing with cousins.

And on to dessert...oh yeah, I also made a GF pumpkin ice cream cake with gingersnap crust the night before. It was seriously MONEY! Yum!!!!

 

GF Pumpkin Ice Cream Cake: (also known as the Pampered Chef Frosty Pumpkin Dessert)

32 gingersnap cookies, finely chopped (1 1/3 cups crumbs)*

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 (1/2 gallon) container vanilla ice cream, divided

2 1/2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided

2/3 cup toffee bits

1 cup solid pack pumpkin

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons Pantry Cinnamon Plus Spice Blend (or just regular cinnamon & nutmeg)

*I bought a bag of GF gingersnaps at Fred Meyer, Mi-Del brand

Directions:

1. Chop cookies, place butter in small bowl and microwave on high 30 to 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in crumbs. Firmly press crumb mixture onto bottom of Springform Pan. Place in freezer.

2. Scoop half of the ice cream into a large bowl. Place in refrigerator 10 minutes to soften. Fold 1 cup of the whipped topping and toffee bits into softened ice cream just until blended. Spread evenly over crust. Freeze until firm, about 1 hour.

3. Place remaining ice cream in refrigerator 10 minutes to soften. Meanwhile, mix pumpkin, brown sugar and spice blend in batter bowl. Scoop softened ice cream into pumpkin mixture. Mix just until blended. Spread evenly over ice cream layer. Freeze until firm, about 8 hours or overnight.

4. When ready to serve, place dessert in refrigerator 20 minutes for easier slicing. Decorate with remaining whipped topping and sprinkle with additional spice blend, if desired. Yield: 16 servings

It was an AWESOME Gluten Free Thanksgiving!!!!

GF Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Sometimes it's nice to find a GF alternative that doesn't require ANY flour, like these peanut butter cookies I picked up from a friend.

The recipe was very simple & my kids were very excited to see this after school treat waiting for them when they came home! Of course KW had found the bag of Hershey's kisses, so not all of our cookies ended up with chocolate in the middle, but they were still great as plain peanut butter cookies.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies


1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
24 Hershey's kisses


Directions:

1. Cream together peanut butter and sugar in a mixing bowl.

2. Add the egg and vanilla; beat until blended.

3. Roll into 2 dozen balls and place 2-in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 min. or until tops are slightly cracked.

4. Immediately press 1 chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Cool for 5 min. before removing to wire racks.

Yield: 24 cookies

Apple Walnut Bread

Today is very dark, cloudy, and rainy. It's a perfect day for a nice warm loaf of Apple Walnut Bread fresh out of the oven.

So I've pretty much given up on trying to repost all of my remaining blogging history from last summer/fall, but it makes posts like this more difficult, because I know I already blogged about this amazing bread before...only it's part of the history I still haven't reposted. Hmmm...maybe that will give me some motivation to repost again?

Anyway, for now I'm enjoying the smell of this delicious bread baking in my oven and can't wait to take it with me to a play date for KW (and for the mommies) a little later this morning!

These pictures are from one of the first loaves I made with this recipe inside my bread machine, which turned out wonderful, but now I use the bread machine to mix the dough and then transfer it to a regular loaf pan and bake in the oven. The finished loaf looks even better and doesn't have that annoying hole in the bottom from the mixing tool.

Apple Walnut Bread

Fill in bread machine in this order:

2 eggs, room temperature
2 tbsp milk
1/4 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled and grated (or any apples you like, I prefer Fugi or Gala)
1 cup walnuts, chopped
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Fill bread machine with ingredients exactly in the order listed here.
2. Set machine to dough only setting if baking separately, or set to quick bread if baking inside your bread machine.
3. If baking in oven, once dough is thoroughly mixed, pour into greased 9 or 10 inch loaf pan and bake at 350 for 40-45 min.

NOTE: baking times may differ slightly depending on the tendencies of your oven, so watch closely on your first try.

Creamy Fruit Salad

It may not look like much from the photo, but this dish is REALLY yummy! The recipe used green apples for more color contrast, but I prefer the taste of fuji or gala apples. Tip: if you've never peeled a mango before, it's not always easy to do. But it's much easier to peel it first and then cut into pieces.

Creamy Fruit Salad

2 medium apples, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups chopped peeled mango
2 cups halved seedless red grapes
3 tablespoons sour cream
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts, toasted

In a large bowl, combine the apples, mango, grapes and sour cream. Refrigerate until serving. Just before serving, stir in the walnuts.

Yield: 8 servings.

Apple Walnut Cake

It may not look like much, but there's some SERIOUSLY DELICIOUS goodness going on inside this cake! I found it in a Woman's Day magazine a couple of years ago and since then it's become a great family favorite. You can make up some icing to drizzle over top, add a scoop of cool whip or vanilla ice cream, or just eat it plain because it's just that good!

Apple Walnut Cake
2 cups sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp each baking soda, cinnamon and salt
1 1/2 cups oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups chopped, unpeeled apples (I use fuji or gala)
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease, but don't flour a 10- or 12-cup bundt pan.
2. Mix sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl until blended.
3. Stir in oil, eggs, and vanilla, then apples and nuts.
4. Bake 1 hour or until a wooden toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool at least 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack before inverting on rack to cool completely.