Spiced Banana-Walnut Bread

Sometimes we’re in the mood to bake, but we don’t have the ingredients we need for what we want to make. That was me last night. It was a stormy Friday night, and all I wanted to do was bake banana bread. A quick look in the kitchen confirmed it, I only had one banana and the recipe called for four. Luckily, I had plenty of other things to do so I made it a productive night and decided baking could wait until the morning. I’m glad I waited until today because I also realized I needed to buy new loaf pans and it gave me extra time to look up different gluten-free banana bread recipes to see which one I wanted to try. I went with the King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Baking Mix recipe and added some extra spices to add a little more flavor to the bread. I also added some rolled oats on top along with extra crushed walnuts for the finishing touch.

I linked the recipe above from the King Arthur Flour site, but I’ll list out below exactly what I did.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 4 1/2 medium bananas)
• 2 1/4 cups King Arthur Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Mix
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Dash of all spice
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 gluten-free rolled oats

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Line (2) 8″ x 4″ loaf pans with unbleached parchment paper leaving some hanging over the edges (this will be a big help at the end).
• In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and brown sugar.
• Add the eggs, mixing until well blended.
• Then incorporate the mashed bananas into your mixture.
• Add the baking mix, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice.
• Mix until the ingredients are all blended together.
• Gently fold in the walnuts. Leave some aside to top each loaf.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared pans.
• Sprinkle each one with the left over crushed walnuts and the rolled oats.
• Allow the batter to rest 10 minutes.
• Bake the 2 loaves side by side in the oven for 45 minutes.
• Half way through the baking time, I turned each loaf around in the oven to promote even baking.
• At 45 minutes, I checked each loaf and the toothpicks came out clean.
• Each oven is different, so if you need a little more time, read on to the next steps.
• If the loaves need more time, then gently lay a piece of aluminum foil across the tops to prevent over-browning.
• Continue to bake until the top springs back and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes in the pans.
• Then use the parchment paper to easily lift each loaf out of the pan and onto a cooling rack or cutting board.
• Allow the banana bread to cool completely before cutting.

Yield: 2 loaves (8″ x 4″ pans)