Gluten-Free Banana Nut Muffins

My family loves breads, and especially loves quick breads.  It’s one thing we’ve really been missing the past week on our 30-day detox.  I was so excited to come across a recipe for gluten-free Banana Nut Muffins.  Because of the detox we are on, I had to make some minor adjustments to these to make them detox friendly.  One of the big “no-no’s” is sugar.  A muffin without sugar?  I bet you’re thinking they must taste awful.  Before you stop reading, let me assure you that these muffins taste great!  Instead of the sugar, I used very ripe bananas to add sweetness, and I also used 3 Tablespoons of honey (something we are to try to avoid, but is okay on occasion).  No, they are not as sweet as they would have been had I used the 1 cup of sugar the original recipe called for, but it’s a muffin and not a cupcake, right?  A few weeks ago, I probably wouldn’t have thought too much about the amount of sugar in the recipe called for, but after not having any sugar for the past 3 weeks, 1 cup of sugar is a LOT especially for only 12 muffins!

Here’s what I made.

Gluten-free Banana Nut Muffins

2 cups gluten-free oat flour

1 1/2 teaspoon Xanthan gum

1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs, beaten (see below for instructions on using flax-seed meal as an egg substitute)

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

3 Tablespoons honey

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 12-hole muffin tin.  To prepare, you can either grease the tin, or line with paper liners.  One easy tip to insure the liners do not remove half the muffin when you take it off is to lightly spray the paper liners with oil (ex. Pam spray or an oil spritzer).

In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients – oat flour, Xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  You want to stir the dry ingredients thoroughly to insure the leavening agents and Xanthan gum are distributed throughout the flour.  Add the beaten eggs, mashed bananas, canola oil, and honey.  Stir by hand until well combined, but do not over mix.  Stir in the chopped walnuts.

Fill muffin tins full.  Sprinkle the tops with sliced almonds.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

These muffins are great right out of the oven, or at room temperature.  They are so light and fluffy!

We had them alongside an omelet for breakfast and they were perfect.  As far as the sweetness goes, my husband and I thought they were perfect (taking into account we haven’t had any sugar for 3 weeks), but our daughter (who has had sugar) loved them as well!

I love that these muffins are also dairy-free, and would be even healthier if you used coconut oil instead of the canola oil.

Flax seed egg substitute:  For each egg, use 1 Tablespoon ground flax-seed meal mixed with 3 Tablespoons of water.  Stir and allow this to thicken for approximately 10 minutes.  When I use “flax-seed” egg substitute, I like to mix the meal and water first thing, and then start following the instructions for a recipe.

I ended up making some more of these muffins for some friends who came over last night.  It happened to be one of their birthdays, and I couldn’t let the day go by without baking something! 🙂  I made some without nuts and some with.  They were just as good the second time and very good without the nuts.  Our friends really enjoyed them as well!

I will definitely be making these even when our detox is over! 🙂  It is good to have some “healthy” muffins on hand, and I don’t feel guilty one bit by letting my daughter have yet another one.  🙂