This is my “take three” on the gluten-free banana bread.  I’m swapping in 1/2 cup of chickpea flour for some of the masa. My thinking is that the additional protein will add the richness of wheat flour and also reduce the blandness of the masa. If you’ve ever had chicken pakora, farinata, or socca, you’ll know what I mean about the richness of chickpea flour.

Like masa, chickpea flour (also “gram”, “besan”, “cici”, “garbanzo bean”) is usually much less expensive at “international” markets than at places like Whole Foods. I lucked out in that my local HEB serves a large immigrant population, so I was able to get four pounds for about $6. If you can’t get it locally, you can buy over the web, but it will likely be much more expensive. Also, be sure not to confuse gram flour with graham flour– that’s actually made from wheat. If you can have wheat, graham flour is great, but that’s not what we’re doing here.

Gluten-Free Banana Bread # 3 w/ Masa & Chickpea Flour

Hardware:

• Loaf Pan or Muffin Tins
• Spatula
• 2 Mixing Bowls (medium)
• Fork (to mash bananas & stir ingredients)
• Oven
• Coconut Oil, Lard, or Oil to grease baking pan
• Butter Knife
• Cooling Rack

• 1/2 cup Chickpea Flour (“Besan”, “Gram”, “Garbanzo”)
• 1 cup Masa Harina
• 1/2 cup Rice Flour
• 3-4 mashed, super ripe Bananas (lots of brown spots)
• 5 Eggs
• 1 tbsp. Baking Powder
• 1 cup Sugar (Brown Sugar will make it more moist)
• 3/4 cup Coconut Oil or Lard, melted but cool (substitute vegetable oil if need be)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 tsp. Salt – Optional
• 1/2 tsp. Nutmeg, Cinnamon, or Allspice (or a mix of the three) – Optional

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease baking pan and flour with a little of the masa or rice flour if you want. Mix masa, rice flour, salt, spices, and baking powder in one bowl.

Break eggs into second bowl and mix well.  Beat chickpea flour, sugar, banana, vanilla, and oil into the eggs. Rest for fifteen minutes in a cool, not cold, place to allow the chickpea flour to hydrate a bit.

Pour wet mix over the dry mix and work it together well.  In a wheat quick bread, you want to avoid over-mixing, but this is less of an issue here.  We just want to make sure everything is well combined with no big lumps.  You can definitely use a stand mixer here without worrying about tunneling. If you use a stand mixer, you can add the dry on top of the wet, but do it in 2-3 batches.

Pour into the baking pan, this version is thicker than the masa-only one.  Bake loaf for 55-60 minutes or muffins for 40-45.  Test with toothpick for doneness.

After you remove it from the oven, run a butter knife around the edges of the loaf pan or muffin cups to help the bread separate from the dish.  As soon as the pan is cool enough to handle by hand, tip the bread out onto a cooling rack to allow it to cool without getting soggy.

Notes

This loaf definitely rose even more than the rice flour version and seems to be about as sturdy as a wheat loaf.  I also used it in a pineapple bread with no masa, which also came out well. I think I’m going to be including chickpea flour in a lot of things from now on.