I love buckwheat, which is actually a grass and not a grain. For some people the flavor is a bit too strong. Chocolate is the perfect complement as its strong flavor meets buckwheat evenly. I do cut this bread with some all purpose (gluten free) flour to mellow the flavors out.
If you are new around here, you might wonder why most of the recipes I post are gluten free. In a former life, I owned a bakery. I love a good loaf of bread. Gluten’s remarkable characteristics for baking have some relation to why it’s hard for many of us to tolerate in digestion. It’s complicated and the reasons are different for everyone, but most of my clients, who want to improve their digestion, find they do better without it.
I personally find my digestion works better when I avoid it. And while I occasionally enjoy a stellar pastry or slice of bread, I keep my baking in the house gluten-free.
As a former chef and baker, it is essential to me that my recipes are universally delicious—even though I use natural sugars and avoid gluten. So if you hand a slice of this bread to a foodie friend, they will love it and not notice it’s gluten free.
Ingredients
3 medium-to-large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup (115 grams) coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup (145 grams) coconut sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup (125 grams) all-purpose gluten-free flour ( I like Arrowhead Mills 1:1 flour)
½ cup + 2 Tablespoons buckwheat flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (Guittard is my favorite)
1 cup (about 6 ounces or 170 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips (if possible, get ones sweetened with coconut or date sugar)
Instructions
1) Heat your oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or spray it with a nonstick baking spray.
2) Mash bananas in the bottom of a large bowl. (You’ll have a little over 1 cup mashed banana total.) Whisk in melted coconut oil, then coconut sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Place baking soda, salt, flours and cocoa powder in an another bowl and whisk to remove lumps. Stir dry and wet ingredients with a spoon until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks or chips.
3) Pour into prepared pan and bake 55 to 65 minutes, until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out batter-free. (A melted chocolate chip smear is expected, however.) Cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and invert it out onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
