Paleo Chocolate Swirl Banana Cake

My husband's grandmother just celebrated her 89th birthday, so we decided to have a special celebration at our house with the kiddos.  It's not everyday you turn 89!  So we wanted to have a little cake and sing to make it extra special.

This recipe is wonderful to make with little helpers.  Lots of opportunities for measuring, stirring and mixing.

I also added a super easy glaze which I will detail below.  Since I will not be eating this cake I used milk to make the glaze, but you could just as easily use almond or coconut milk for a dairy free glaze.

With a few candles you've got a lovely cake!

Paleo Chocolate Swirl Banana Cake
3 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
2 tbs oil, whatever oil you prefer to bake with (examples would be walnut, coconut, even olive)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (ACV)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Swirl (optional)
1 tbs cocoa powder
splash vanilla extract
1 tbs maply syrup
1/2 tbs oil
splash of your preferred milk, if needed

Glaze (optional and not paleo)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
splash vanilla or maple extract
couple tablespoons milk of choice, starting with just one, and add more until reaching desired consistency

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350.  I prefer to line a 9" square pan with parchment, but grease yours if you don't like or don't have parchment.

Mash your bananas and mix in your eggs, oil, syrup, ACV, and extract.  In a separate bowl, mix your almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, and then add wet to dry and incorporate.

Pour your batter into your baking pan.  In a small bowl, mix up your chocolate swirl.  Pour it over top of the batter, and with a sharp knife or toothpick, swirl the chocolate mixture around until it's well distributed.  I had some additional leftover that I just drizzled on the top.  Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out cleanly- start checking at 20 min.

When the cake has cooled you can pour your glaze on top, and use the back of a spoon to distribute.

While this cake is grain and dairy free, it does have almond flour so is certainly not suitable for those with nut allergies.  There are scores of coconut flour banana bread recipes available however.  I have one on this blog, but it uses sugar-free sweeteners, which I no longer use or approve of.  It would be easy enough to sub out the SF sweetener for maple syrup or whatever, but I would rather put up a new recipe than link to that one.

When it comes to baking, at this point my personal stance is that there are really no baked-goods that I should be eating, as I no longer eat artificially sweetened things, and cannot really tolerate the carbs or sugar anyways.  Whatever I bake is going to be for friends and family, and I want to be sure everything I use is natural, free of pesticides or chemicals, and as healthful as possible.

Paleo Banana Bread, Nut-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free, Grain and Gluten-Free

I am kind of weirded that I don't have a banana bread recipe up on the blog.  Banana bread used to be a staple chez GFG.  I would make it a few times a month, with regular SAD ingredients, or sometimes half whole wheat flour and half AP, or even a tablespoon or two of flax meal and think I was really badass.  Well, times have changed, and there's a new banana bread recipe in town y'all.  This recipe is so stinkin' easy and so stinkin' good.  It does not have a weird mealy coconut texture like so many coconut flour baked good can have.  It is delicious, and sugar free to boot.  It is sweetened with the bannas themselves, and stevia.  Think stevia isn't paleo?  It is.  Check out Mark's Daily Apple if you don't believe me.  And it is safe for diabetics.  I have tested it on myself, and I have pretty much no insulin.  So there.  This would make a great dessert, but frankly, I'll be giving it to S for breakfast, as it is perfectly healthy.

Paleo Banana Bread
2 medium bananas, mashed
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup walnut or coconut oil
3/4 cup nutmilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp butter extract (optional)
4 droppers nunaturals alcohol free liquid stevia
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup coconut flour

Mash your bananas in a large bowl, add in your eggs, extracts, stevia, milk, and oil, stir well.  Add in your dry ingredients (try to get coconut flour lumps out prior to adding) and combine well.  I lined my loaf pan with parchment, but you can grease yours if you prefer.  Pour your batter into the loaf pan and drop on the countertop a few times to get out any air bubbles.  Sprinkle the top with cinnamon if you like!  When a knife comes out just clean, take it out.  It will firm up a bit as it cools.  Mine was still pretty squishy in the center.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  This is now your go-to, easy peasy, one bowl banana bread recipe.  Enjoy!

Banana Peanut Flour Muffins- Sugar, Grain, Gluten Free

Clearly not a paleo recipe, but certainly a gluten, grain, and sugar free muffin, these little guys have that  unmistakeable peanut/banana flavor combo going on that most of us can't resist!  They make the perfect  breakfast for S and are a nice change from all that coconut flour.

Banana Peanut Flour Muffins
2 overripe bananas
2 eggs
1/4 cup walnut oil
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp SF liquid sweetener
12 drops Vanilla Creme Stevia
4 tbsp peanut flour
1 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Makes 8 muffins.

Mash your bananas and add your eggs, oil, vanilla, sweetener, and liquid stevia.  Mix well.  In a separate bowl, use a fork to combine your peanut flour and coconut flour, and salt and baking powder.  Add wet to dry and mix well.  Pour into lined muffin tin and bake at 350 until the tops are browned.  A new trick I learned is that you want to remove the muffins when they are nice and browned, but still "crackling" when you listen to them.

These are for S to have for breakfast during the week, but I did have to cut off a small piece to make sure they were good.  If you were wondering, yes, they are crazy ridiculous good.  I so miss bananas, sigh.

Another Muffin Recipe! Grain-Free, SF Banana Pancake Muffins

Getting tired of my muffin recipes yet?  I'm sure you are!  But I would feel awful not sharing this recipe because it's so stinking good!  Unfortunately I am abstaining, because I don't eat fruit anymore, but for those of you who can tolerate it, PLEASE try these out!  They are also 100% dairy free.

Grain/Gluten/Sugar/Dairy Free Banana Pancake Muffins

1/2 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs
1/4 cup walnut oil (or coconut)
3 large overripe bananas
1/2 cup SF pancake syrup
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp maple extract

I usually have brown bananas in the freezer, and I'm not sure if it's just me, but does freezing them create more juice?  Or does the freezer just pull moisture out of them faster? I'm not sure, but be sure to save the juice!  Wring out your peels as best you can!

In a large bowl, use a fork to combine your coconut flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda.  Break up your lumps!  In a separate bowl, mash your bananas and add your eggs, oil, syrup, and extracts.  Add wet to dry and stir stir stir!  Bake at 350 until the tops are browned.

These would quickly become dessert with some frosting.  They are really really good.  Just remember my coconut flour baking tip, which is to be sure to completely cook these through, they cannot and should not be underdone!

The batter for these was very very wet.  If your bananas aren't that juicy, try adding a splash of nut milk.  The browner the banana, the batter!  You could easily add some flax or chia seeds for some added nutrients.

Enjoy GFGs! Xoxo

Chocolate Banana (Vegan/Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free) Ice Cream

In the days of your SAD diet, did you have a frosty from Wendy's?  Ew gross me neither, haha!  Just kidding.  I did, and they were the shit.  I miss garbage like that.  Luckily, with this recipe, you don't have to.  This stuff is crack.  Frozen.  Chocolate.  Crack.  It's crazy good.  And stupid easy.  Get to it!

Vegan/Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free Chocolate Banana Ice Cream
3 frozen overripe bananas
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 can light coconut milk
2 packets of your preferred stevia sweetener (optional, and you may not need it depending on the ripeness of your bananas)

Process your frozen bananas until creamy in your food processor, then add coconut milk and cocoa powder. Pulse just until combined.  Now taste it and see if it needs additional sweetener- it may not.  If so, add in your stevia and pulse again.  Refrigerate for a few hours.  Then prepare according to your ice cream makers instructions.  Still don't have an ice cream maker?  WHY?  There is practically nothing healthy, tasty, and sugar free on the market, and certainly not a lot that is dairy free and/or paleo friendly.  Coconut Bliss Sugar Free is good, but super expensive, and full of gums (xantham, guar)

This ice cream will blow your mind.  Want to jazz it up?  Add chocolate chips at the last second, or add a few tbsp of peanut butter to the cuisi when pulsing.  Make some caramel sauce with rehydrated dates.  So good people.  You do not need to have any guilt whatsoever about giving this to your family.  Yes the bananas are full of fructose and starch, but I save my fruit for desserts and treats, so I feel ok about this.  Plus, it enables you to really cut back on the sweeteners.  No erythritol or xylitol needed in this recipe.  Don't like coconut milk?  You can't taste it- I promise.

Have fun with this recipe- and use it as a base for other ice cream flavors!  Minus the cocoa powder and with a little bit of vanilla extract- this would be a delish vanilla ice cream!

XoXoGFG