Banana-Maple Coffee Cake

This morning I actually got up on time (!!) and had some time to make a hot breakfast, and we had a bunch of over-ripe bananas that begged to be baked into something yummy! I would have made banana muffins again, but I am burned out on banana muffins after several recipe flops: the last batch I made I forgot the baking soda (really dense!). Since banana muffins were off the menu for a while, I decided to make something different today: coffee cake. I haven’t made coffee cake in while, so I decided to look through a cookbook I got for Christmas last year and I found the perfect recipe to make-over for breakfast.

Coffee cake is really more of a dessert, but this cake is still wholesome because it is made with whole grain flour, pure maple syrup, less fat, bananas, and (best of all) it’s allergy-friendly!

Banana-Maple Coffee Cake

Banana-Maple Coffee Cake

Makes 9

Crumb:

1/4 cup brown rice flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted (or sunflower seeds or other nuts)

1/4 cup ground flax or chia seed

1 Tablespoon Stevia in the Raw

2 Tablespoons coconut oil

2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup

Cake:

1 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup ground flax or chia seed (as a binder)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon (scant) salt

2 medium sized ripe bananas

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F and spray an 8×8 inch with oil.
2. Prepare the crumb mixture: in a food processor, add the flour, cinnamon, seeds or nuts, ground flax seed, Stevia, coconut oil, and maple syrup. Pulse process a couple times until mixed well and crumbly.  Set aside.
3. In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, ground flax seed, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. In a larger bowl, mash bananas well, then mix in the maple syrup, vanilla, oil, and lemon juice or vinegar.  Once mixed well, add in the dry ingredients and mix together.
5. Pour a little less than half the batter into the pan and spread it out. Sprinkle this layer with 1/2 the crumb mixture. Pour the rest of the batter on top of this and carefully spread out. Top the batter with the remaining crumb mixture.
6. Bake in the over for 20-25 minutes or until nicely browned and toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
7. Let cake cool in the pan a bit before cutting and serving warm. Enjoy!

 Recipe adapted from the HayDay Country Cookbook by Kim Rizk