Bittersweet Banana Muffins

 This is banana bread in a muffin, suitable for snack time and much less sweet than than a standard banana bread.  And really, bananas are sweet enough, don't you think?  Banana breads needn't have so much added sweetness to taste delicious.  Breads for dinner and snacks can have less sugar and still have delectable taste.  I liked this variant on bananas in baked goods.  If you want a sweeter and more moist muffin, however, you can try adding some extra mashed banana or sugar to taste.

You will need:

• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 3 cups of oat flour
• 1-3 tablespoons of baking powder
• 1 bottle of mild-flavor beer (for a gf muffin, you can use gf beer)
• cinnamon and sweetener to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Mash the banana.
3. Fluff the oat flour with a spoon, along with the baking powder.
4. Mix together the banana mash and flour mixtures, along with the beer.  Stir until the clumps of flour get dissolved.
5. Add cinnamon and sweetener to taste.
6. Pour batter into lined or greased muffin tins.
7. Bake for ~20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.
8. Enjoy!

Makes 12 standard size (whole grain, gluten-free, vegan, 100 calorie) muffins.

Cinnamon Raisin Celebration Muffins

These muffins look especially festive wrapped in multicolor paper!

 These muffins are delicious, satisfying, easy, and healthy.  They are easily made gluten-free, and they clock in at about 100 calories/muffin and have almost no fat.  Each muffin is fairly generously proportioned, too, and while it may taste like a traditional muffin, it won't leave you with a sugar high followed by a sudden crash.  You may choose whether to use or omit the flaxseed - it won't affect the taste much but will make the muffin a bit less crumbly than it might be otherwise.  To make the muffins, you will need:

• 3 cups oat flour
• 1-3 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 spoonful of ground flaxseed (optional, makes muffins less crumbly)
• 1 bottle of beer (for gf muffins, use a gf beer)
• salt, sweetener, and cinnamon to taste
• vanilla (optional)
• raisins to taste (I used 1.5 single serving boxes of Del Monte  raisins)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix together the oat flour and baking powder (and the flaxseed, if desired); fluff with spoon.
3. Add the beer, stir until all the clumps of oat flour get dissolved.
4. Add the remaining ingredients, stir, and taste the batter.  Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
5. Pour the batter into 12 lined or greased muffin tins and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
6. Enjoy!

Makes 12 muffins.

Right after they leave the oven, all ready to be eaten!

You can see a few of the raisins peeking through the surface.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Capped Carob Muffin Sliders

 Carob has been growing on me lately.  It's subtly sweet on its own, unlike chocolate, and it has a nice richness and depth without the caffeine, which means it's safe for consumption at any hour.  I decided to give carob powder a try in a beer bread recipe.  When this savory muffin flat (slider) is paired with a generous dollop of peanut butter and a mildly sweet spread such as apricot jelly or orange marmalade, the flavors complement each other in what I found were novel and tasty ways. 

This recipe is a take on the beer breads I have been making.  It represents another hack at using amaranth flour.  This time I was hoping the carob would mask it, and I was pretty satisfied with the result.  As with a few other breads I have baked for this blog, initially I did not like these muffins.  On their own they are kindof yucky.  However, when I topped them with the pb&j, as shown in the photos (or pb alone), I found them to be absolutely delicious - and adorable.  So these muffins come with a caveat - they must be dressed accordingly to achieve the proper taste combination!

To make these muffin flats, you will need:

• 2 cups of amaranth flour (quinoa flour would probably also work here)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened carob powder
• 1 bottle beer (I used New Grist)
• salt and sweetener to taste
• vanilla, cinnamon, instant coffee powder, etc. to taste (optional)

For the topping:

• peanut butter
• sweet fruit spread such as apricot jelly or orange marmalade (I don't think blueberry or strawberry jam would work well here)

*Please note that measurements here are approximate-I made this recipe a while back and failed to take good notes.  If I make these again (it's likely!) I'll update this page.

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix together the amaranth flour and the carob powder, and then sift them with a spoon.
3. Add the beer and stir until the lumps are all gone.
4. Add remaining flavorings, taste, and adjust as necessary.
5. Pour into greased or lined muffin tins. 
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
7. Top with a generous layer of peanut butter, and then a generous layer of jelly.
8. Enjoy!

60 Second Magical Mocha Mug Cake

 After reading about a 60 second, super easy, flourless microwaveable mug-cake from Foodie Fiasco (click for her recipe!), I knew I was going to have to try making one of these myself.  I was not disappointed!  What a brilliant approach, and yet healthier than the sinfully delicious espresso brownie cups I had made earlier.

I followed Ms. Fiasco's recipe to a T, except I added a bit of instant coffee to the mix before popping it in the microwave to get a mocha flavor in the mix.  The texture is amazing and cakelike - I didn't taste the pumpkin in the mix at all.  The cake is also beautiful and yields a substantial portion.  Be careful to add a lot of sugar or sweetener, though-without it the cake can be a bit bitter.

I will definitely make this again, hopefully veganized.

Enjoy with a 60 calorie vegan mocha!

You will need:

• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 egg white
• 2 spoonfuls of canned pumpkin
• 1/2 teaspon/small spoon of baking powder
• 3 spoonfuls of milk of choice
• Instant coffee (optional)
• Sweetener of choice

1. Mix everything together.  You may want to put everything except the egg in so that you can safely taste and be sure you have sufficient sweetener.
2. Pour into microwave safe greased or sprayed ramekin.
3. Nuke it for about 3 minutes, but watch it like a hawk, as every microwave is different.
4. Enjoy!

Do please also check out Kelly's post on this at Foodie Fiasco.  She has a lot of ideas/commentary/etc. for the recipe, and her site is just generally awesome.

If you would like something similar in taste but less healthy and even faster to put together, try these espresso brownie cups!  You may also enjoy our grain free brownies (more work, but more servings and also super yummy).

Peanut Butter Muffin Flats

I made these yummy muffin flats today when I found myself with a handful of chickpeas.  Yes, chickpeas!  These muffin flats are healthy, vegan treats, inspired by the adventures of Chocolate Covered Katie.  I didn't have quite enough chickpeas to follow a recipe, so I devised my own.  Fortunately with experimental vegan baking it's safe to taste the batter and adjust the ingredients, etc. until things seem about right.  The imprecision of this process is strangely liberating.  Try it some time!  If you fiddle around with this recipe, let me know how it goes!  To follow suit you will need:

• 1 cup of cooked chickpeas (mine had been accidentally overcooked - great for baking!)
• 1/4 cup of peanut butter, approximately (or more or less depending on how strong of a pb-taste you prefer)
• spoonful of baking powder
• 1/4-1/2 cup of flour of choice (I used whole wheat, but you could easily use oat for a g-f version)
• 1/2 cup or so of nut milk (or real milk, for a non-vegan version)
• salt, sweetener, and cinnamon to taste (I used a dash of salt and cinnamon and 5 stevia packets)
• a few drops of vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Put dry ingredients and vanilla in a blender, then add nut milk until there is enough liquid in the mix for the blender to do its thing without burning up (I have a simple hand blender).
3. Blend everything until smooth.
4. Taste and adjust seasoning.  The batter should be fairly thick; if it appears too thin, add more flour, and if it's too thick, add more milk.
5. Pour into lined muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
6. Enjoy!

This recipe makes 6 muffin flats.

Oreo muffins

The chocolate muffin lineup.

Following the success of the Gluten-Free beer bread and Spiced Plum Muffins, I decided to try a third recipe with the same (surprising!) oat flour and GF beer base.  The result was a batch of beautiful muffins with a very unique texture and flavor.  The final product is more crumbly than a traditional cake-y muffin, and if you go light on sweetener it tastes like an interesting bread more than anything else.  Lightly sweetened, these muffins would be suitable to accompany your breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but they wouldn't taste chocolatey at all.  With a lot of sweetener, they taste like oreo cookies, in muffin form.  I really enjoyed eating these muffins sprinkled with sugar.  To make the muffins, you will need:

• 3 3/4 cup oat flour
• 1 12 oz can of beer (I used GF New Grist)
• 3 tablespoons of baking powder 
• 1-2 tablespoons of oil of choice
• to taste: unsweetened cocoa powder (1 used ~1/4 cup of Hershey's Dark), instant coffee, sweetener (you'll need more than you think; get your batter to taste as sweet as you want it to and then add a bit more sweetener to be safe-it's vegan so you can taste the batter :D), and salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Line muffin tins with baking cups.
3. Mix oat flour and baking powder together; fluff with spoon.
4. Add beer and stir until mixed.
5. Add the remaining ingredients and stir gently.
6. Pour into muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Enjoy!  (these are delicious warm or cold)

Makes 12 medium-size muffins.

Note on beers: you will probably want to choose a lighter tasting beer if you are making a dessert.  You don't want the beer flavor to overpower the other flavors in the dish.