Banana-Apple Gluten-Free Muffins

It was late in the evening last week and I was craving something warm, baked, sweet, and fast. So I got out my 250 Best Muffin Recipes cookbook–a rarely used item on my cookbook shelf–and went to work. I’ve been avoiding gluten when possible, so the flour got replaced with a gluten-free blend; I’ve been avoiding refined sugar, so that got replaced with molasses and xylitol; and I’ve been avoiding dairy, so I used mashed overripe bananas, pureed apple and a little oil instead. Then I added chopped apples just in case it wasn’t moist enough. Miracle of miracles, it actually worked. Here’s my bastardized recipe: Easy Banana-Apple Gluten-Free Muffins 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (2-3 depending on size, make sure they’re very ripe or they’ll be tough to mash and kind of starchy-tasting. You could also use 1 cup banana and 1 cored apple chopped in chunks) 2 tbsp olive oil 3 tbsp xylitol (or regular sugar or brown sugar) 1 1/2 tsp molasses (approximately) 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 flour (all-purpose or gluten-free blend: 2 cups brown rice flour, 1 cup sorghum flour, 1 cup tapioca starch, 1/2 cup potato starch, 1/4 cup sweet rice flour, 2 tsp guar gum) 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp nutmeg 1 apple, cored and chopped or diced (optional but a very good idea. You could also do blueberries or cranberries) Directions: 1. Combine the oil, banana, and apple (the one to be pureed, not the one to be diced and added at the end) in a blender or food processor and process well. 2. Add the xylitol, molasses, and egg and combine again. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg (you should sift, but this is a quick recipe so don’t worry about it). 3. Pour out the contents of the blender or food processor into the bowl with the flour and stir until no flour is visible. Stir in the apple pieces (the diced ones). 4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour batter into muffin liners or greased muffin tins. 5. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the muffin comes out clean. Makes about 12 big muffins, or more smaller muffins. Banana-Apple Gluten-Free Pancakes with Corn and Rice Flour 1 cup frozen corn kernels 1/2 cup fine cornmeal 3/4 cup rice flour 1/4 tsp salt 1 tbsp sugar 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 large egg, separated 1 tbsp butter, melted 1/2 cup pureed apple, or applesauce 1 small banana (1/2 – 3/4 of a large one) 1 cup almond milk, or until desired thickness I really did bastardize the recipe. The original called for buttermilk and I didn’t want to use that. I didn’t originally want to open a container of almond milk because you need to use it within a week and I currently have no other plans for it. So I used banana as a moisturizer and buttermilk replacer, but then I figured I had some frozen apple puree in my freezer that I should use up as it was taking up much needed spanikopita space. Then the flours…well, mostly I figured an all-rice flour pancake would be pretty crumbly and corn is sweeter so I wouldn’t need to add much sugar or crave too much maple syrup (an over-indulgence that makes me much more miserable while I lie on the couch after ingesting). I also had a little fine cornmeal leftover from who knows what that I was probably never going to otherwise use. You can substitute more rice flour, all purpose flour, or more corn kernels. So that lead me to this: Combine the flours, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder in a large bowl. In a small bowl beat the egg white until frothy. Set aside. In a medium bowl whisk the egg yolk, then add almost all the melted butter, reserving just a little to grease the griddle. Whisk until lighter in colour. Set aside. In the blender combine the apple puree, banana (in chunks), almond milk and corn kernels. You can also leave some corn kernals un-blended if you like texture and mini-corn explosions in your cakes. Kind of like adding blueberries or chocolate chips in a standard recipe, and just as sweet. Very un-traditional, but also very delicious. Blend until smooth, then add to the bowl with the egg yolk and butter and whisk to combine. Add the combined flours and stir (don’t over-mix). then fold in the frothy egg white until you can’t see any white in the batter. Again, don’t overmix or your cakes will go from fluffy to dense – not a desirable characteristic of a pancake or a person. Though I suppose a fluffy person would be a strange thing to behold. This is where you add the un-blended corn kernals if desired (or blueberries or chocolate chips) Let the batter sit for 10 minutes before heating a griddle or frying pan over high heat. The book originally says heat for 5 minutes on high with nothing in the pan (no butter) but that causes my pans to smoke, so I heated until just before smoke started rising and then added the leftover little bit of melted butter. You can spread it around with a pastry brush if you like. You can also just use more. That’s fine too, but I used a vegan butter that tastes like absolutely nothing, so I’m essentially just adding fat and not flavour, which is basically my nightmare. Butter is delicious. Becel vegan is junk and it’s worth skimping on it for the sake of your waistline since you’re not getting anything out of it taste-wise. Ladle small scoops of batter onto the pan as per regular pancakes. These are, in fact, pretty regular pancakes despite the fruit and flour substitutions. If your batter is too thick dilute it with more almond milk so that your ladles of batter don’t look like space creatures with weird spikes and twisted edges. Don’t overmix the batter, though. Be gentle. Reduce the heat a little immediately (to medium or medium-high, depending on your griddle) so the pan doesn’t smoke. Wait about 3 minutes, or until bubbles appear on top of the pancakes (mine were too thick and I didn’t get any bubbles) and then flip them over. Then you’re supposed to cook until they feel springy, but I say cook them until they’re golden on both sides. If they’re the right thickness they should be cooked all the way through. If not, on the next batch you’ll need to lower the griddle heat so they have time to cook through before charring on the outside. The first batch is always the worst. Some people re-butter between batches but it depends on your griddle. You may not need to as long as the pancakes don’t stick. Finally! Jam! Yes! Thanks SO much to my jam-giver for this delicious bottle of rhubarb tartness. As a “water” element I’m supposed to have slightly sour fruit with my breakfast, so orange or rhubarb, to balance the sweetness of the pancakes. I bet you had no idea you were so intuitively Thai.