Banana Bread

"Still Life with Curious George"

My photo doesn’t look as good as this banana bread truly is but George really wanted to be in the photo shoot.

I found the recipe on the Bob’s Red Mill Web site, which hosts a decent number of recipes using their grains.

What I really like about this recipe is that is calls for minimal dairy ingredients -- a relief for celiacs who have to avoid it.

I’ll warn you that it isn’t fluffy or dense like some banana breads. It’s somewhere in between.

Curious George gave this a thumbs-up.

How to prepare:

1/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon imitation vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon (I thought this called for too much cinnamon)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Grease 9x5-inch non-stick loaf pan. For smaller loaves, use three 5x3 inch loaf pans.
• Cream together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl.
• Add flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder and cinnamon to egg mixture, alternating with bananas.
• Beat until smooth.
• Stir in nuts.
• Bake 9x5" loaf for 1 hour, 5x3" loaves for 45 minutes.