Gluten-Free Banana Bread French Toast

My MIL was here over the weekend visiting so she could be here with the boys for Halloween. When I picked her up from the airport Saturday morning and brought her home, she told me a story she thought I'd find "quite amusing".

It seems "Mom 2" has discovered several food blogs that she loves and visits on a regular basis. She uses these blogs to follow links and explore other food blogs. One day, while hopping from blog to blog, she made a discovery. She was at MY blog! I had mentioned that I had my own blog, but I'd never given her a link to the blog. Imagine her surpise when she realized she knew the author. :)

She spent quite a bit of time here, reading about the garden, the family, and browsing the recipes. Which saved me from having to tell her about my gluten-free diet- she already knew! She was asking me about what I had made, how alternative flours tasted, etc. I have slowly but surely built up a small GF pantry, and am getting a little braver each day in trying out new things. When I realized I had some ripe bananas, I thought I would let her taste for herself what something might taste like with GF substitutions. I made 2 loaves of banana bread using this recipe, except I subsituted 2 cups of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix for the flour, baking powder, etc., and I added 1/4 cup sour cream.

It turned out wonderfully, and we all enjoyed nice warm banana bread on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning, I got out the 2nd loaf of banana bread, thinking the boys would enjoy having it for breakfast. My 8 year old looked at the banana bread, then looked at me and declared that he wanted Banana Bread French Toast. I had never even thought of such a thing before, but okay. I'm game.


GF Banana Bread French Toast

8 slices of your favorite GF banana bread, or use recipe above
3 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1t GF vanilla
1t cinnamon

Heat a skillet over medium heat and grease lightly. Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon, and let banana bread soak in the mixture for 2-3 minutes, turning once to coat.

Cook in skillet over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, flip, and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes, or until egg mixture is cooked through and french toast is nicely browned. Serve with maple syrup.

I was very pleased with how this turned out. The egg mixture and pan-frying gave the banana bread a wonderful "melt in your mouth" texture. It felt very decadent, which was exciting, considering I haven't had anything along these lines since I stopped eating gluten.

I'm looking forward to my son's next request---hopefully it will generate another delicious creation!

Orange Muffins

Okay, I played with a recipe I found online, made some tweaks and adjustments, and voila! Came up with these little gems. My 3yo K gave his stamp of approval! Here's the recipe as I made them. I did make a glaze with orange juice and powdered sugar for the tops, you'll need to play to come up with the consistency you want.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup orange juice (if batter is thick you can add a little more)
1T vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon orange zest

1 8oz container of vanilla yogurt

1t cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with baking cups.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, orange peel, cinnamon and salt; mix well. In a small bowl, combine orange juice, oil, yogurt and egg; blend well. Add dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy.)
Fill cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan. Let cool on rack, and drizzle with glaze, if desired.

My favorite chocolate chip recipe

Making a batch of these today---they are my alltime favorites because they get that perfect crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle combo. Today they are a mix of semi sweet and white chips. I think the key to these is creaming the butter, shortening and sugar together really well, till it's nice and fluffy. I know some people prefer all butter to the butter/shortening combo. You can certainly swap in this recipe-I prefer the combo because I think it gives the cookie that perfect "bite". You might try butter flavored shortening. Adds to the flavor. Enjoy!

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or any flavor/combo you prefer)
2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees . Combine flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine soften butter with shortening, sugar and brown sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Beat in egg. Gradually add flour mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 min. I like them almost underdone, so I do about 7-8 on a dark sheet.