In all honesty, baking is not my strong suit. I much prefer cooking. I usually get good results with baking if I follow recipes to a T, but I like to experiment and make healthy modifications. Sometimes this leads to success but, more often than not, I’m left disappointed. This happened a couple of weeks ago when I attempted to make a healthified pumpkin bread with Jackson and it was a total flop. I ate a piece but wound up trashing the rest because it just wasn’t good at all. This past weekend, though, I discovered a winner! I decided to modify a banana bread recipe from Detoxinista (whose recipes I love!) and was pleasantly surprised at how good it turned out. The original recipe is already healthy so my modifications were mainly due to the ingredients I had on hand (or didn’t have, like arrowroot starch) and my desire to use up some leftover pumpkin. I didn’t have high hopes after my last baking fiasco, but the end result was a moist, flavorful banana bread (free of dairy and gluten!) that I couldn’t stop eating. David gave it two thumbs up too!

The base of this bread is almond flour and there are no other flours involved. If you’re avoiding wheat or other grains for whatever reason, this is a quick bread you can actually eat! It also has no refined sugar or oils. Honey is used as a sweetener, and the bananas and pumpkin puree provide all the moistness this bread needs. Considering what most baked goods like this are packed with, this bread is practically a health food! 

I should note that although there’s a decent amount of pumpkin in this, the flavor is overpowered by the bananas. So if you’re looking for a true pumpkin bread, this is not the recipe for you. I intended to make banana bread and only threw the pumpkin in there for the added nutrients and because I wanted to use it up. At some point I might experiment with using more pumpkin vs. bananas to see how that comes out, but at this point, I can only recommend the ratio I tried. 

Are you a fan of baking with almond flour? Do you have any favorite almond flour-based recipes? Let me know!

Almond Flour Pumpkin Banana Bread

Ingredients
3 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and lightly grease a loaf pan (I used coconut oil), or line with parchment paper.
2. Add the bananas to a large bowl and mash them well. Stir in the pumpkin.
3. To the banana/pumpkin mixture add the almond flour, cornmeal, honey, baking soda, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon and stir until evenly mixed and smooth.
4. Add the apple cider vinegar and stir just until incorporated. Do not overmix.
5. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top with a spreading knife or spatula
6. Bake at 350ºF for about 45 minutes, or until the top of the loaf has begun to rise and crack, and feels firm to the touch.
7. Let cool and then slice.

*Adapted from Detoxinista’s Almond Flour Banana Bread