Right now, we are midway through November, 2018. We’ve had our second snow of the year, and most people are thinking about their Thanksgiving spread. However, November stands out for another holiday. National Peanut Butter Lovers Month. In all honesty, that’s every month for me. But I figured this was a good excuse to whip up this Gluten Free Peanut Butter Pie Shake.

A Shake With No Ice Cream

Confession. This Gluten Free Peanut Butter Pie Shake contains no ice cream. I still contains dairy, but no ice cream. Instead, this shake uses frozen, blended bananas. Blended, frozen banana chunks turn into a frozen, creamy consistency that resembles ice cream.

In fact, you can use frozen bananas to make “ice cream” and add all sorts of flavors. Celeste from Life After Wheat has quite a few “Ninja Creami” recipes on her website, including this recipe for Chunky Monkey Protein Ice Cream.

Why Grandma Peg Needed Everything Pureed

The creation of this Gluten Free Peanut Butter Pie Shake stems from a family story. My husband’s grandmother, also named Margaret, fell ill with diphtheria in her young adult years. As a teacher, and the mother of three children, it must have been terrifying.

She survived. However, it left her with a paralyzed esophagus for the remainder of her life. Every food she ate needed to be finely pureed. The slightest chunk could literally choke her. Luckily, we now have a vaccine against diphtheria.

She Drank This Every Day

For some 40 odd years, she daily consumed a shake very similar to this Gluten Free Peanut Butter Shake I created. Every day, Peg would blend a banana, graham crackers, milk and peanut butter in a blender, and “drink” it.

As she aged, she added things like Greek yogurt or protein powder to “up” the nutritional content. This always sounded delicious to me, so I finally decided to create one myself!

The One Ingredient I Added That Made it Better

After looking at her ingredients, I realized that the shake resembled the ingredients in peanut butter pie filling. Grandma Peg never used cream cheese in her shake. However, I found adding just a bit really mimicked the taste of my favorite filling. This keeps this Gluten Free Peanut Butter Pie Shake pretty thick, similar to the consistency of ice cream.

No Added Sugar Needed

I dare any kid to try it and NOT think there’s ice cream inside. As a matter of fact, aside from what’s in the graham crackers, this shake contains no added sugar. Therefore, you can feel pretty great about giving this as an after school snack or after dinner dessert. I find it to be pretty filling myself, and could probably pass on lunch after consuming one of these.

More Recipes from My Family

We tend to think of family recipes from big dinners. However, I find comfort in the handed down day-to-day routines from family. Grandma’s shake or her constant baking of peanut butter cookies.

Papa Earle’s jokes and his gluten free buckwheat bread recipe. My mother in law’s Gluten Free Wacky Cake that she would make for each birthday. My dad’s gluten free meatballs that he would make for every family gathering. It’s these recipes that connect us to those we love after they’re gone. Make sure you write down your family favorites.

Recipe

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Gluten Free Peanut Butter Pie Shake

Ingredients

• 2 bananas cut and frozen
• 3-4 gluten free graham crackers
• 2 oz non-fat greek yogurt 4 tbsp
• 2 oz skim milk 4 tbsp
• 1 oz natural peanut butter 2 tbsp
• 1 oz lowfat cream cheese 2 tbsp

Instructions

• Peel two bananas and cut into slices. Place on a plate and put in freezer. Freeze for at least 4 hours, or longer if possible. 
• When ready to make the shake, add graham crackers to the blender and pulse until broken into crumbs. 
• Next, place frozen bananas slices into blender. Add milk and Greek yogurt, and blend. 
• Finally, add natural peanut butter and low-fat cream cheese, and blend until smooth. 
• Transfer to serving glass and enjoy! 

**This post was not sponsored. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

Originally Published November 2018

The post Gluten Free Peanut Butter Pie Shake appeared first on MI Gluten Free Gal.

What is PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter?

When I first saw the peanut butter bread on the Glen and Friends You Tube channel, I knew I had to try it. Since it contains no eggs, it easily scaled down to a smaller batch. Like Glen, I agreed that it needed more “peanut butter” flavor. However, I was concerned about upsetting the balance of liquids and fats by adding more peanut butter.

Which lead me to add PB2 powdered peanut butter to the batter. PB2 takes roasted peanuts, presses the oils from them, and then grinds the rest to a powder. It resembles a powder similar in texture to cocoa powder.  The general rule in turning a “yellow cake” into a chocolate one is to swap out equal parts of flour for cocoa powder. Therefore, I took out 1/4 cup of the flour from Glen’s recipe, and substituted the PB2. It worked great, and deepened the peanut flavor in this bread.

If you don’t have PB2, simply use 2 cups of gluten free flour, instead of 1 3/4.

This Gluten Free Peanut Butter Bread makes an amazing PB +J!

Can You Make This Bread Without Dairy and Eggs?

This gluten free peanut butter bread uses no eggs. (No yeast, either.) However, it does require the use of milk. I did make this bread using Cup 4 Cup flour, which is now dairy free. This recipe works well with King Arthur Flour Measure for Measure, which contains no dairy. To substitute the milk, I would try canned coconut milk, either full fat or lite.

Can You Make This Bread Without Peanut Butter?

Great question. I don’t know. In theory, if you can’t have peanuts, I think other nut butters might work.  I think I would attempt almond butter, like I did in these Almond Butter Chai Cookies.  If you can’t tolerate any nuts, you can try SunButter. However, it might turn your baked goods green. For this recipe, I used natural peanut butter, with no added hydrogenated oils.

Turn this Gluten Free Peanut Butter Bread into Gluten Free French Toast, and top with caramelized bananas!

Why You Should Bake This Peanut Butter Bread at 325*.

The first time I baked this gluten free peanut butter bread, it split on the side. I believe this is because I baked it at too high a temperature. Instead of 350, bake this at 325 for a longer period of time. The Kitchn recommended baking it at a higher temp for the first 10 minutes, but that still caused my bread to split. Low and slow is what you want to go for.

When I baked this bread the second time, I added 1/2 cup Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips, and it turned out perfectly. The first loaf, in the above pictures, was prepared using a stand mixer. This made the batter much smoother. The second time I prepared it in a bowl, and stirred it with a spoon. The top of the baked loaf ended up lumpier, but still delicious.

Can I Make This Recipe Into Muffins?

King Arthur Baking wrote a fantastic blog post about how to make muffins from a quick bread recipe. Here’s the gist. Fill muffin wells with 3-4 tablespoons of batter. (I like this scoop.) Then bake at 375 degrees for 23-28 muffins.

Other Peanut Butter Recipes

I absolutely love peanut butter. In our house, we put it on top of these buckwheat pancakes. My Peanut Butter Pie Shake is a great treat without any refined sugar, and includes hidden fruit! Make it with my homemade gluten free graham crackers. 🙂 If you’re looking for something savory, I could put this 5 ingredient peanut sauce by Minimalist Baker on just about every meal.

If you’re looking for different flavors of bread, try my gluten free blueberry zucchini bread. Craving pumpkin bread? Try this one from Wheat by the Wayside, in my pumpkin bread pudding recipe.  In addition, What the Fork wrote a super list of gluten free quick bread recipes. She even has her own gluten free quick bread cookbook!

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Gluten Free Peanut Butter Bread

Equipment

• PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter Bundle, Keto Diet, Gluten Free, Mix in Protein Shakes & Smoothies, Low Carb, Original Peanut Butter & Peanut Butter Cocoa Flavors (2 Jars – 6.5 Oz Each)
• Cup4Cup Multipurpose Flour, 3 Pounds, Certified Gluten Free Flour, 1:1 All Purpose Flour Substitution, Non-GMO, Kosher, Made in the USA
• Organic Brown Sugar Bulk Resealable bag (3lb) – raw Light Brown sugar for Baking, Kitchen sweetener, Glazes & More – Made with Organic Molasses for a Sweet and Flavorful Taste
• Organic Cane Sugar Crystals (5lb sugar packet) – Preservative & bone-char free, vegan food sugar substitute, gluten free, Non-GMO, fine natural sugar sweetener for cooking, beverages, & more
• Enjoy Life Semi Sweet Chocolate Mini Chips, 10 oz

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 c gluten free flour I used Cup 4 Cup brand
• 1/4 c powdered peanut butter
• 3 tbsp white sugar
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 c milk optional 4 tsp vinegar
• 1/2 c natural peanut butter
• if you use Jif, which contains sugar, I’d reduce each type of sugar by 1 tbsp
• optional – 1/2 c mini chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 
• In a large bowl, or stand mixer, combine flour, peanut butter powder, sugars, baking powder and salt. Stir to make sure that all ingredients are blended well, especially making sure that the peanut butter powder is evenly distributed. 
• Next, add milk slowly, blending thoroughly. The first two times I made this, I just used plain milk. The third time, I used a milk to which i added vinegar. I'm not sure I could tell a big difference, but it definitely didn't' hurt. If you're going to add the vinegar to the milk, allow the milk to set for 5 minutes before adding to the batter. 
• Finally, add peanut butter. Make sure to stir thoroughly, but don't over mix. If adding chocolate chips, do so after stirring in the peanut butter.
• Pour into a greased or parchment paper lined loaf pan. (I've done it both ways.) I used a medium loaf pan, which helps with creating a taller loaf. It measures 8.5 x 4.5. You can use a large 9 x 5 loaf pan. Your loaf will just be shorter. 
• Place in a 325 degree heated oven and bake for 50 minutes. The first time, I baked this at 350 for 40 minutes. However, it split along the top. (Although it was completely cooked in the center.)  The original recipe called for baking it at 325 for one hour.I think 50 minutes is more accurate. To prevent the top from over browning, you may want to cover with foil after the first 30 minutes. 
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan for about 10-15 minutes. This allows the sides to cool and firm up. Then remove from the pan and place on the rack to cool completely before slicing. Probably at least an hour. 

What’s been on your baking list lately? Any new recipes I should try? Leave me a note in the comments! 

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Originally published July 2020

The post Gluten Free Peanut Butter Bread appeared first on MI Gluten Free Gal.