Something from Sierra Leone: EASY GF, Egg-less Banana Bread!

It's still freezing here in Minnesota. I don't mean cold, I mean FREEZING. Veterans of the Minnesota winters are wondering when the cold will end. But that's global warming for you (BTW, if you think global warming just makes things wrong, it doesn't. It creates drastically altered weather patterns. Thank Bush)

Ok, ok, no more soap box for today.

just walk somewhere today, ok?

Except for you in Minnesota and Wisconsin- you have a reprieve until May: park as close to the doors as you possibly can.

As I sit up here freezing, I think enviously about the people we call "snow birds" here. These people have vasts amount of liquid income (or savings) and they fly to some place warm during these cold winters. Like Arizona. Like Florida. Like Sierra Leone (you were wondering how I'd bring that around to a coastal country in Africa, weren't you). Sierra Leone (Lee-oh-n) IS a small, coastal country on the western edge of Africa (Africa is a continent....remember that). They speak French in Sierra Leone and are EXTREMELY educated. I had a class once with a girl from Sierra Leone; I'm an A++ student and I found we were competing pretty hard for the top grade. One day, my parents went to the Science Museum of Minnesota (eh, Exploratorium's better) and got a handout of a Rice-Based Banana Bread. I asked her. It's actually a trial, if you will, for brides-to-be to bake for their mother in-laws. This shows that they know how to bake, but also that they know how to make bread without "flour" or eggs. It's a rite. Which is cool, if you think about how all of us GFers are constantly undergoing this...like brides-to-be...

Or maybe it's just weird. Anyhoo, here's the recipe:

Sierra Leone's Rice Banana Bread

1 3/4C glutinous rice flour
2 1/2tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
2/3C white, granulated sugar
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/4C oil
1/2C luke-warm water
1 1/2C very ripe bananas, homogenized (that means totally mashed up, no chunks)

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. (rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg)
2. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, oil, water, and bananas together.
3. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients- do not just pour it all in at one. You can't have any lumps.
4. When completely mixed, the batter will be very stiff. Pour this into a 9", well-greased bread pan.
5. Bake at 350*F for about 50minutes, or until a toothpick inserted down to the middle comes out clean.

Hints:
Sugar dissolves so, it's not considered a dry ingredient. Eh- go figure.

Preheat your oven. Make sure that your bread is centered in the oven.

When opening and closing the oven, ease the door back into place. Don't shove it or let it bang.


Enjoy the GF goodies!
The Irish Lass