Gluten Free Banana Cake

This is a recipe I made many years ago but forgot that where the recipe came from. CC#2 reminded me it was a buckwheat banana cake from Epicurious. I had turned it into a 100% buckwheat gluten free banana cake and obviously it was good enough to impress CC#2. The current take below was made with 2/3 buckwheat and 1/3 almond flour, with an added walnut crumble inspired by another old banana coffee cake recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (160g) buckwheat flour

• 1/2 (50g) almond flour

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• 1 tsp baking powder + baking soda

• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 3 large eggs

• 4 ripe large bananas + 1 firm banana

• 1 1/2 olive oil

• 1/3 cup sour cream

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• Gluten Free Walnut Streusel: In food processor, mix together 20g buckwheat flour, 13g almond flour, 1 tbsp white sugar, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 cup walnuts, and 1 tbsp butter until crumbly

Instructions:

• Use parchment paper to fold a holder for banana cake to be baked in a one-pound pullman pan (see this cool video on how to fold such contraption)

• Mix all dry ingredients (except brown sugar) in medium bowl

• Mash 4 ripe bananas with 1 tbsp brown sugar well, and then beat with eggs, sour cream, and olive oil

• Fold in dry ingredient mixture to make a thick batter

• Pour half of batter in prepared baking dish

• Generously sprinkle 1/2 walnut streusel on top

• Pour in remaining batter

• Cut firm banana in half length wise and lightly press them into batter next to each other

• Bake a 350F for 1 hour 10 minutes, until tooth pick comes out clean

Notes: I added the walnut streusel on top of the banana cake batter which was a mistake, as the loose streusel didn’t stick to the cake surface. Adding streusel in the center of the cake is a better idea. If you want to add streusel on top, it may help to make them into cupcakes and gently press in the streusel into cake batter. Also, the split banana should be pressed into the batter as well, as mine fell off to the sides of the baking pan and one could hardly find them. Next time…