Banana Maple Pecan Muffins (Gluten-Free)

If you ever had wondered what to do with overripe bananas, you can stop now. I have come across banana bread nirvana. Original recipe credit goes to Chris on the Delphi forums.

I bought about 20 pounds of bananas from Kroger for $1.00 and have been trying several recipes to use them up. I made 2 different banana breads and some banana butter. The first banana bread I made turned out rather dry and tasteless; the banana butter fixed that but I was still searching for something more. This particular recipe was my favorite creation by far and my favorite banana bread to date. I delivered 8 of these fresh out of the oven to my mother and her coworkers (about 10 minutes away, I drove quickly).


I doubled the recipe and ended up with 39 regular sized muffins. After baking the first half of the batter, I ran out of pecans for the topping. To top the remaining muffins, I devised a cream cheese frosting. Both toppings are absolutely delicious. I made one or two muffins with both toppings and they were especially sinful. This could probably be made into a loaf instead of muffins, but the batter is rather dense and would probably not work well.

Ingredients:
Batter:

• 3 ripe Bananas
• 1/3 cup Pure Maple Syrup
• 1/2 cup chopped Pecans
• 2 cups Gluten-Free Flour*
• 1 tsp Xanthan Gum
• 1 cup packed Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (equal parts cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger)
• 2 tbsp Dry Buttermilk Powder
• 2 Eggs, beaten
  
• 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/2 cup Water

Maple Pecan Topping:

• 3/4 cup chopped Pecans
• 1/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 6oz Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup
• 1/4 cup packed Brown Sugar

* For the flour mix, I used Bette Hagman's Mix with great success: 2 parts garfava flour, 1 part sorghum flour, 3 parts cornstarch and 3 parts tapioca flour. Feel free to experiment with your own mix.

Directions:

1. Combine mashed bananas with 1/3 cup maple syrup and 1/2 cup pecans. Mix well and set aside.
2. Combine flour, xanthan gum, sugar, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and dry buttermilk. Alternatively, if you do not have premixed pumpkin pie spice, use equal parts cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg (I used extra cinnamon). Mix together well.
   
3. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients. Combine eggs, oil, and water in separate bowl. Pour into center of dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon just until dry ingredients are incorporated.
4. Use a spatula or knife to make three or four "troughs" in the dough/batter. Spoon banana mixture into troughs. Gently fold bananas into dough with knife.
5. Spoon dough into muffin cups. If using maple pecan topping, sprinkle muffins with maple pecan mixture prior to baking. If using cream cheese frosting, beat ingredients together and spread on tops of muffins after they are baked, not before.
6. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until they test done. Try not to underbake, I baked mine for a little longer, maybe 22-23 minutes. Makes about 18 good sized muffins.

Be sure to post a review of my recipe on Recipezaar: http://www.recipezaar.com/banana-maple-pecan-bread-muffins-gluten-free-365191

You probably don't want to know the nutrition information...

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

I was poking around Recipeezaar the other day and came across a few recipes for Pumpkin Bread. I decided I had to have some so I started searching for a gluten-free recipe. The recipe I ended up using is based off of this one: Here. I always try to make my food a little bit healthier than the recipe says. In this case, I decreased the oil from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup and increased the applesauce to 1 full cup. Also, in line with my belief that everything is better with more cinnamon, I doubled the cinnamon and sprinkled some on top of each loaf/muffin.


Recipe makes 6 5.75" x 3" x 2.5" loaves. I made 1 medium sized loaf (slightly larger than 5.75" x 3" x 2.5"), 2 mini loaves and 12 muffins. These came out very moist and delicious. I did not experience any deflating as is typical of GF breads. I gave some to my car-pool buddy and he said it tasted like regular glutened bread! Success!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Flour (gluten-free)*
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum
• 1/2 tsp Clove
• 1 tsp Allspice
• 1 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 cup White Sugar
• 2/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 15 oz Pumpkin Puree (such as Libby's)
• 4 Large Eggs
• 1/4 cup Canola Oil
• 1 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1 cup Nonfat Milk (or water)

* For the flour mix, I used Bette Hagman's Mix: 2 parts garfava flour, 1 part sorghum flour, 3 parts cornstarch, and 3 parts tapioca flour. Feel free to experiment with your own mix.

Directions:

1. In large mixing bowl, beat eggs.
2. Beat in sugar, pumpkin, applesauce and oil.
3. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients and beat in 1/2 at a time. (I beat in all of the spices and half of the flour at once and then beat the remaining half of the flour)
4. Slowly beat in milk until mixed and there are no flour lumps. Optional: Add 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips.
5. Pour batter into 6 greased and floured small loaf pans until each is about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Be aware that the loaves will rise several inches.
6. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top of each loaf.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 350F for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into middle of loaf comes out clean. If making muffins, cook at 350F for about 30-35 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Turn loaves upsidedown to remove from pan.
   

I ate 3 of the muffins straight out of the oven while they were still piping hot. The next day I made some apple-butter which complimented the bread perfectly. I stuck the remaining muffins in a bag along with the larger loaf and have been eating it for the past week. I froze the 2 mini loaves, hopefully they thaw well.

Nutritional information:

Be sure to post a review of my recipe on Recipezaar: http://www.recipezaar.com/gluten-free-pumpkin-bread-359480