A dairy free, gluten free holiday treat … it’s tastier than it sounds!

Whether you’re lighting up the menorah, hanging tinsel on the Christmas tree, or gathering together for Kwanzas … tis’ the season to be jolly!

I’m spending the holiday season in my home town of Atlanta, GA with my immediate family. It’s the first time in, I don’t even know how many, years we’ve all been together for Hanukkah!

We have lots of holiday traditions, some truly unique to the Wolf clan and others are typical ‘Hallmark’ renditions. Tomorrow night, we’ll have our annual “Wolf Family Thanksgiving Dinner” – I know Thanksgiving was a month ago, but because we are never together for turkey day, we save our day of thanks for Christmas day. Every December 25th, we gather around the table for my mom’s delicious stuffing (it’s the best!) and turkey (doused in white wine!).

On Tuesday evening, we’ll have our standard Hanukkah dinner, which the culinary duties usually fall on my shoulders. The menu will include latkes (potato pancakes), braised chicken with apples and apricots, and an assortment of other goodies.

When planning the menus, we’re dealing with an assortment of food allergies and intolerances. It sounds like a nightmare, but we’ve managed to make it work. Over the next few days, I’ll share some of my holiday ‘specialty’ recipes with y’all; starting off with a gluten and diary free chocolate chip banana bread!

GLUTEN FREE DIARY FREE BANANA BREAD

This is my own recipe, which took some experimenting and adapting.

What you’ll need:

- 2 bananas, mashed
- 1 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour (you can find this at Target or Whole Foods)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup Earth Balance organic coconut spread (Whole Foods by the butter), melted
- 2 eggs, beaten (I like to use organic cage free eggs – I seriously taste a difference)
- 2 tsp vanilla
- Enjoy Life chocolate chunks (these are nut free, diary free, and soy free – I swear they are delicious! You can also use carob chips)

How to make it …

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan. Combine gluten free flour with baking soda and salt. Add banana, eggs, vanilla, and melted coconut spread. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chunks. Scrap batter into the loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Because of the unique ingredients this can bake up quickly, so I recommend keeping an eye on it. Let it cool in the pan. Then remove from the pan, slice it up, and serve with some delicious Rice-Nog. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for Gluten Free Almond Butter Thumbprint Cookies and Latkes!