Gluten-Free Banana Bread (made with rice flour)

In a world of baked goods consisting of wheat flour, when that's all you know, gluten-free baking can be quite a challenge. One of my daughters is experimenting with this dietary change, and it has been a few weeks of research, trial-and-much-error, but we're learning. Since this is new thing, and it is not mandated by the doctor or anything, I didn't want to spend a large amount of money on ingredients. Hence, a banana bread recipe made with rice flour. Which I made myself. How to Make Rice Flour

The bread turned out surprisingly good. I had my doubts - I love to bake, and expect the crumb, texture and appearance of wheat-based baked goods. It's different, but a good thing - there is a bite to it; the taste was fantastic, and so far the girls approve. I put my changes in bold: 

Rice Flour Banana Bread
makes 2 loaves + 12 mini-muffins

Ingredients: 
1/3 cup softened butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons buttermilk (I used soured milk)
1 teaspoon lemon extract (I used vanilla extract)
2 cups brown rice flour or 2 cups rice flour (I used white rice)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1 cup toasted coconut (I put this in half of the items)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Stir in buttermilk and (lemon) extract and mix well.
Combine rice flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and add to the butter mixture.
Stir in bananas and coconut and mix well.
Spoon the mixture into two greased mini loaf pans (5 1/2 by 3 inches). I had enough extra batter to make 12 mini-muffins, too. 
Bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
Cool in pans 2 minutes, then turn out and cool completely. Adapted from here.

Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Bananas and chocolate just go good together. Like chocolate and mint. And today at Costco, they had discounted their bananas to ~22cents a pound. The girls and I hefted 15 bags of bananas home, and spent a while peeling and freezing them. So how did that lead to a cake? I need a dessert for our church Life group, and had bananas on the brain. And chocolate frosting in the freezer. Perfect! It had more of a banana bread consistency than cake-like, but that was fine with everyone who had some. :)

Banana Cake:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar *I used slightly less
2 large eggs, beaten
2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking soda (add to pureed bananas)
3 pureed bananas, very ripe


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13" baking pan or two 9" layer cake pans.

2. Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Sift flour several times, then add the salt and baking powder to the flour.

3. To the creamed butter mixture, add the milk and flour (alternating, beginning and ending with flour).

4. Add vanilla and mashed bananas (with the baking soda added to the bananas) to this mixture.

5. Bake layer cakes (9") for 25-30 minutes, oblong (9x13") for 35-40 minutes.

6. Allow cake to cool completely before icing with chocolate or cream cheese frosting, if desired.

From momswhothink.com

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.

2.In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.

Banana Bread

this is also a childhood recipe-

3 large bananas
1 egg, well beaten
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp. butter, melted
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Mash bananas well, mix with egg. Add sugar and butter; mix thoroughly. Sift together remaining ingredients and add to wet mixture. Bake in greased 5x9 pans (or 3 mini-loaves) at 350' for 1 hour; mini loaves take ~25".