Quest: Banana Muffin #7 (and #8)

G is getting muffined-out. When he found out I made another recipe, he said I should quit looking and settle on one of the ones I've made before. Good thing this is the last recipe I had on deck to try. 😂 

Pros- it's gluten free, hearty because of the almond flour and oats, uses maple syrup and bananas as sweetners. 

Cons- I've been putting off making it because it seems putsy. I had to grind oats to make flour for the recipe, melt coconut oil, and a number of ingredients need to be room temp. Also, it says it only makes 10 muffins. Lots of work for a few muffins. 

The oats ground up fine once I got the mill out. I did a bunch to speed up the process for future recipes. 

I didn't feel like dealing with coconut oil, so I substituted grapeseed oil. And since the oil doesn't solidify when cold, I didn't worry about having room temp ingredients. 😅😜

It didn't make any difference in the recipe. 

They turned out great. I baked them without muffin liners in my copper muffin pan. That probably accounts for the low height. There was enough batter for 12 muffins plus a mini cake. 

I enjoyed the flavor and thought they were nice and moist. G didn't like the gritty texture, but I think that's from the home ground oats and the brand of almond flour I used. I could sift both and get a much smoother texture. 

So this recipe is a keeper for sure. 

I have three keeper banana recipes, each with a slightly different purpose. This is a good gluten free recipe. The one with hemp hearts is G's favorite. And then the one I made twice without realizing it can be our normal standard. 

But... 

What if I don't have any ripe bananas?? The way Jaron ears them, it's pretty tricky to have any around. Maybe I could sub applesauce for bananas? Chat gpt thought so. 

So I whipped up a batch using a 1:1 substitution of homemade applesauce for bananas. 

Very liquidy. 

I debated adding more oats or almond flour and decided against it. Another factor I threw in the mix was baking it in the toaster oven instead of the regular oven. The way the pan fits inside brings the batter close to the heating element, which could impact the bake. I also filled the muffin wells fuller and still had a good amount of batter leftover for my little cake pan. 

As you can see, they ended up with dips in the middle. Too much moisture. 

Still, they taste good. Extremely moist, so I should tweak that next time.  

And bake them in a regular oven to see if that makes a difference. 🙃