banana bread

Everyone seems to love banana bread (including me, although I cannot stand bananas by themselves). There are a lot of grain-free, refined sugar-free versions out there. But most still end up being quite high in sugar as they often use quite a few bananas, added sweetener (i.e. honey) and sometimes dried fruit as well (i.e. dates). There�s nothing wrong with this if you�re just having it now and then, but I personally find that high sugar banana bread just leaves me craving more (and liable to eat the whole loaf).

So I developed this low sugar version, which harnesses the natural sweetness of coconut oil, coconut flour, desiccated coconut and two bananas across the whole loaf. I don�t use any further sweeteners. The coconut oil adds a good dose of healthy fats and the coconut flour provides fibre, which makes this bread all the more satisfying.

You could add some of your favourite sweetener to the recipe if you want to make it sweeter. But maybe try it without at first and see what you think. My boyfriend has a massive sweet tooth, but loves this recipe as it is. I think it tastes best once it�s cooled or the next day (rather than straight out of the oven), after the flavours have had time to develop.

ingredients

• 2 ripe bananas
• ? cup raw virgin coconut oil, melted
• 4 eggs
• � cup coconut flour
• � cup desiccated coconut
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• � tsp baking powder
• � tsp salt

preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 160�C and line a loaf tin with baking paper (I use a 23 x 7 cm loaf tin).

2. Mash the bananas in a large bowl, then beat in the coconut oil and eggs.

3. Stir through the remaining dry ingredients until well combined (if your coconut flour is quite lumpy, it�s worth sifting it into the bowl).

4. Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin, smoothing the top with the back of a spoon. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 � 45 minutes.