It’s no secret that I love anything sweet – who doesn’t? But, I really don’t like to eat too much sugar as it tends to give me a sugar high and leave me feeling lethargic and cranky and, of course, I want to avoid the more serious long term health consequences that are caused by high consumption of sugar. The thing I hate the most about sugar, however, is the horrible sugar cravings, a little bit of sugar always makes you want a little bit more… and then some more…. Unsurprisingly, recent studies have suggested that sugar (consumed in large quantities) is as addictive as drugs such as cocaine and heroine!

Despite the fact that more and more people now want to cut down or eliminate sugar from their diets, it’s still very difficult to find anything sugar-free in supermarkets  (have you ever tried to find a sugar-free pasta sauce, for example?). Sugar is added in almost everything – a bag of crisps often contains a teaspoon of sugar, many ready meals contain more than 15tsp of sugar, bottle of alcopop 4-8tsp and a small pot of low fat fruit yoghurt 3tsp.This is why most people consume much more than the recommended daily amount of 12tsp (or around 50g) of sugar, without even realising it. If you want to know more about sugar and its affect on health – there is plenty of information available online and several great books have been written on the subject.

The good news is, you can enjoy sweet things without having to load your body up with processed sugars and hence, without suffering the usual side effects of a sugar rush, mood swings, bad skin, lethargy etc etc. As people become more and more health conscious, sugar free, naturally sweetened, alternatives are becoming easier to find (e.g. check out my favourite Natasha’s Living Foods ), though you still need to go to a health food shop to get them.  I can’t always get to a health food shop so I’m always on the look out for new healthy sweet recipes. Though I’m not a great baker, I find that home baked goods always taste better than anything shop bought – even if your bread is a bit burnt and biscuits fall apart – and baking is quite good fun once you get the hang of it.

Here’s one of my favourite sweet recipes that I think is a good introduction to sugar-free (and wheat free) baking. It’s so easy to make that it’s almost impossible to get wrong even if you’ve never baked a thing before. Best of all, you really won’t be able to tell there’s no wheat or sugar in it.

Banana Bread with Walnuts and Blueberries

200g Ripe bananas, sliced

200g Plain natural yoghurt

1 Egg

75g Butter (unsalted), melted (or coconut oil)

2-3tbsp Agave syrup

1tsp Vanilla essence

50g Ground almonds

135g Wheat & Gluten free flour

1tsp Baking powder

2tsp Cinnamon

50g Walnuts, roughly chopped

120g Blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a small (1lb/450g) loaf tin with baking paper.

In a foodprocessor or a blender, blend together the bananas, yoghurt, egg, butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Add the ground almonds and mix well.

Add in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon (mix these together first) and mix well.

Stir in the chopped walnuts and blueberries.

Spoon the mixture into the lined loaf tin. Bake in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes.  Ovens vary, so check your loaf for doneness by inserting a sharp knife into the centre of the loaf – it should be a bit sticky but not wet, so the knife comes out almost clean.

About the ingredients:

Flour: I use Doves Farm Gluten Free  white flour . This is a mix of rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat flours. This should be available in most supermarkets and health food shops. If you can’t find it, you can use 80g brown rice flour,and 30g maize (cornflour).

Butter: Try to find an unsalted and preferably organic butter. If you want to avoid using butter, you could use virgin coconut oil, though personally, I think using real butter makes this bread that bit nicer and a little bit of butter does no harm!

Agave: Agave is very sweet so little goes a long way.  I usually use 2 tbsp of agave, but sometimes I fancy it a bit sweeter and go for 3tbsp.  If you want to avoid even natural sweeteners, you could leave the agave out and the bread will still be delicious! Agave can also be substituted with maple syrup (just make sure you buy REAL maple syrup, not flavoured). However, avoid using honey in baking/cooking (I don’t think it would even go well in this recipe).

Blueberries: If you can, try to use fresh local blueberries as they are much sweeter and juicier than imported ones – you’ll really notice the difference. The best place (and so far the only place I’ve found) to buy Irish blueberries is in Marks & Spencer.

Tags: agave , baking , bananas , blueberries , gluten free , sugar free , wheat free