Banana, Coconut & Chocolate Loaf

You know you're a gluten-free baker of a certain age when just a few of your storecupboard staples are coconut flour, coconut syrup and cacao nib.  I worry I'm becoming one of those "Posho" type chefs we are taught to despise, but the problem is, if you're gluten-free, you have to find different flours to work with in order to make recipes work.  I, of course, want to make gluten-free cake accessible to everyone, and all the ingredients I use are easy to obtain (and hopefully not too cost prohibitive) but there are some times when only coconut flour will do!

​So this recipe, borne out of a need to use up 3 rather sad rapidly darkening bananas and a love of banana bread of Brobdingnagian proportions, was created.  I am also currently utterly obsessed with this Bali Nutra coconut syrup which adds an almost caramel treacliness to the finished loaf.  This recipe marries together flavours you might be more familiar with in a cocktail, but I think they work here so perfectly.  A dense and satisfying loaf cake which is both subtly sweet and enticingly nutty.  Whilst I am not a vegan, I have provided vegan substitutes below as this recipe is too delicious not to share with everyone.  It's like I always say... "let them all eat cake"!


INGREDIENTS
4 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 egg (or the equivalent of egg replacer)
50ml coconut syrup (I used Bali Nutra)
4 tbsp natural yoghurt or dairy-free yoghurt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
150g coconut flour
165g gluten-free plain flour
1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
15g cocoa powder (I used Food Thoughts)
100g coconut sugar
50g dark chocolate chips (check the chocolate you are using is suitable for vegans if you are making this vegan)
10g cacao nib
3 tbsp coffee, cooled
Pinch free-flowing salt

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5
2. Grease (with coconut oil) and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin
3. Whisk together the egg (or egg replacement), coconut oil, coconut syrup, 50g of coconut sugar, banana and coffee together in a large bowl
4. In another bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder and salt
5. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet and stir well to combine.
6. Add in the remaining 50g of coconut sugar, the chocolate chips and cacao nib and fold through
7. Pour and scrape into your prepared loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes.
8. After 30 minutes cover the top with foil then bake for a further 30 minutes until the loaf is cooked through.  Remove to a wire rack for 20 minutes, then turn out to cool completely.
9. Eat this slathered in salty butter or dairy-free spread and drizzled with a little more coconut syrup.  Or just as it is (it is anything but plain) with a steaming cup of your favourite coffee.

NB: This is a stock photo, as I annoyingly didn't have time to photograph this loaf before it was consumed by a horde of hungry BBQ-goers

Back to Recipes