Jamaican banana fritters (Gluten free)

Jamaican banana fritters recipe – a gluten free version of these delicious, super easy banana fritters that can be eaten any time of the day.

Jamaican banana fritters are an all time favourite on mine. I like them because they are a no fuss, quick, tasty and filling appetiser. In a sense, you get all of this goodness in one serving. These fritters are so nice and simple, go on and be daring by tripling or quadrupling the batch.

What is a fritter?

In short, a fritter is fried batter that consists of a sweet or savoury filling. In the case of a Jamaican banana fritter, the clue is in the name.

It’s loaded with those potassium enriched bananas and some spices because you know Caribbean people love to include nutmeg and cinnamon in the party.

Growing up I would watch my grandmother and mother make banana fritters. We would often treat ourselves to some fritters for breakfast.

Sometimes our breakfast consisted of copious amounts of banana fritters with some cocoa tea. Alternatively, we would have the fritters with callaloo and scrambled eggs on the side.

Gluten free Jamaican banana fritters

Mom and grandma made fritters with self rising flour, which is all purpose flour to the wider audience. Of course being a gluten free blogger the recipe has been adapted to accommodate those changes. It’s not a relatively HUGE adjustment if I do say so myself.

Rather the only minor change to the original recipe is using gluten flour in place of self rising flour. There’s isn’t much room for error with this recipe, you can’t really go wrong it’s such an easy banana fritters recipe to follow.

How to make Jamaican banana fritters

you will need the following;

• Gluten free flour
• Overripe bananas
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Vanilla
• A good sturdy frying pan
• Coconut sugar (optional)

Using overripe bananas – Ideally you want to use bananas that are overripe for this recipe. Bananas where the skin is more black than yellow. This is because overripe bananas are naturally sweet so this lessens the chance of having to add too much sweetener.

Mash the bananas – Peel the bananas and use either a potato masher or blender to breakdown the bananas into a more pureed consistency. This will form the foundation for the banana fritter batter.

Adding the spices, pink salt, coconut sugar and vanilla – Once the bananas have been broken down simply add your coconut sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, pink salt and vanilla.

Gluten free flour – I like to add my flour once all of the other ingredients have been combined. Currently Bob Red Mill’s  1 to 1 baking flour is my favourite GF flour blend to use. I simply use a whisk to mix the flour into the banana mash so it results in a creamy texture, ready to be cooked.

Frying the fritters – I hate frying food but there’s some recipes you simply cannot avoid following this method. To remedy my disdain for frying, I used as little oil as possible (maybe 1/4 cup maximum) and a very, very durable non stick skillet which aided the cooking process.

Use a spoon to scoop the batter towards the side of the bowl, lift and drop into the pan. As the batter cooks it will spread slightly before it turns golden. Use a egg lifter to flip the fritter over the other side and repeat.

I don’t have over ripe bananas to hand, can I still make the fritters?

Yes, you can BUT…. you will probably need to increase the amount of coconut sugar to compensate for the lack of sweetness in the bananas. That is why I do recommend using very ripe bananas, but it is still doable.

Can I make Jamaican banana fritters that are grainfree/paleo friendly

I haven’t managed to try this myself…yet but…I should think that coconut flour (although eggs might be needed) or almond flour (not almond meal) should work just fine.

Notes

• Jamaican banana fritters are vegan and gluten free
• Can use plantains if you don’t have any bananas to hand
• Super ripe bananas create the sweetest fritters

Jamaican banana fritters – the video

How to make banana fritters Jamaican style (with pictures)

Peel and slice the bananas then place them in a large bowl

Mash the bananas (using a blender or masher) into a puree like consistency then add the spices, pink salt and vanilla

Add the coconut sugar and gluten free flour and mix everything together

Pour the coconut oil until a non stick skillet, spoon the batter into the pan and fry each side until golden

 

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