Now that I live out of home (yes, I am a late bloomer) I look forward to sleepovers at my parent’s house (still home in my mind) all the more. I look forward to snuggling in my bed, which is temporarily housed there until we move into our new home. On Saturday mornings, especially in late autumn, I look forward to rugging up in a jumper or two and heading out to the farmer’s markets with Mum and Jess for breakfast and lady talk. We have been market regulars for nearly five years now and we are firmly settled into our routine: Mum gets the newspapers and finds a table, Jess gets her giant bucket of tea from the Dutch pancake people, and I line up for Mum’s and my cappuccinos. Then we all congregate around the table Mum has found and share stories of our week, problem solve any issues that are pending in our lives, and eat something to fortify us before we forage. Mum is a free spirit and wanders off to try something new for breakfast every week while Jess and I tend to eat something that I have baked and brought from home. On the menu this week is this soft banana, peanut butter and mixed fruit enhanced Breakfast Bread.
I baked this loaf late last night and wrapped it up safely this morning for its journey home. It feels like a breakfast bread, peanut butter, bananas, and dried fruit; the weight and heft of the slices call for chilled morning air and cold hands wrapped around a warm beverage. Quick breads take very well to being made gluten free and this one is moist and soft. No worry about dry crumbly bread here with bananas, eggs, peanut butter and almond meal in the mix. The overripe mashed bananas are the backbone of the sweetness in this loaf, with a touch more being added by the brown sugar. There’s the goodness of crunchy peanut butter in there and if you toast a slice of this and slather some extra peanut butter on there you might just find nirvana. I love a good dried fruit mix especially in dense sweet breakfast bread like this, but if you don’t (like Mum) you can leave it out, or swap it for the same amount of chocolate chips. This bread, if made on a Friday night or Saturday morning will see you all the way through a late autumn weekend: with tea and butter for breakfast, a sneaky slice for morning tea, and then another to tide you over until dinner. A healthy snack for kids, who especially like the version with chocolate chips, or so I hear.
Breakfast Bread
Gluten Free. Makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf. Around 8-10 slices.
Ingredients
- 100 grams brown rice flour
- 70 grams almond meal
- 70 grams sorghum flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup milk
- 2 large very ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup crunchy peanut butter
- 2/3 cup mixed dried fruit
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line a 9 x 5 inch baking tin with baking paper.
- In a large bowl whisk together brown rice flour, almond meal, sorghum flour, salt, and baking powder.
- In a medium bowl whisk together milk, bananas, eggs, olive oil, vanilla extract, and brown sugar. Make sure there are no lumps of brown sugar hiding in your mix.
- Add peanut butter to the egg mixture and beat until smooth.
- Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Stir until just combined.
- Gently stir in mixed dried fruit until distributed. Do not over mix.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Place in preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. If it starts to brown too quickly cover the top with some aluminium foil.
- The bread is done when a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove and allow to cool on a rack.
Bread will keep in an airtight container for up to three days or sliced, wrapped and frozen for up to two months.
