Gluten-free pear & banana loaf
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I’m pretty excited for today. It’s the first day of the annual Toronto Vegetarian Food Festival, and I’m just about to head down to Harbourfront to check out all the new products, eat delicious food and catch up with friends. Thankfully it’s a beautiful day in the city—the sun is shining and everyone is out and about for the weekend.
If you’re in town, be sure to stop by and check out the festivities. We’ve got some amazing speakers and demos lined up, including Roberto Martin, Allyson Kramer, Michael Greger and Heather Nicholds, just to name a few, as well as a Q&A with the director of The Ghosts In Our Machine (an incredible documentary, if you haven’t seen it yet).
This doesn’t have anything at all to do with this pear and banana loaf, but I have been up to my elbows in pears this week. You see, I came home with a huge bag of cute little Forelle pears from a colleague’s tree, and so far I’ve made a pear crousade, a fall-inspired crumble and this amazing loaf. Yep, I’ve been a busy girl.
As you’ll see from the ingredients list, this loaf is humble yet wholesome. It is bursting with fruit flavours and chunks of soft pears, and also makes use of one of my favourite gluten-free flour combinations: chickpea, oat and almond. Oh, and it’s oil-free, too.
I paired the loaf slices with some homemade blueberry jam, the recipe of which will appear in Dreena Burton’s next cookbook. I get the pleasure of working with Dreena once again and have been busy photographing all the recipes for this new book (and from what I’ve seen so far, I think it’s going to be another masterpiece!). To find out about her family-friendly recipes, check out my review of her latest ebook.
Enjoy!
PrintGluten-free pear & banana loaf
Yield: 1 loaf
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup chickpea flour
- 3/4 cup oat flour (see note)
- 3/4 cup almond meal
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1.5 cups peeled and chopped ripe pears, divided (about 2 medium)
- 3/4 cup sliced ripe banana (about 1 medium)
- 6 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper so it hangs over the sides of the pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the chickpea flour, oat flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
- Using a food processor, process 3/4 cup chopped pear with the banana, maple syrup, lemon juice and vanilla until smooth. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fold in the remaining 3/4 cup chopped pear.
- Use a spatula to pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool before slicing.
Note: Be sure to purchase certified gluten-free oat flour if you are sensitive to oats.
