Healthy Nibbles & Bits

Easy banana chocolate muffins made gluten free with oat and corn flour! You make the batter entirely in one bowl, which means fewer dishes!

Every few weeks, my husband pesters me to make banana chocolate muffins. It’s funny because I don’t think he particularly likes bananas. I buy them all the time and never once have I seen him reach for one. Come to think of it, fruit in general is just not a part of his repertoire. Be that as it may, we cook muffins here every once in a while.

For these muffins, I’m using a combination of oat and corn flour. I got the idea to add corn flour after reading my friend Alanna’s cookbook, Alternative Baker. (By the way, if you are looking for a good gluten-free cookbook, be sure to check Alanna’s cookbook!) The corn flour gives the muffins a subtle sweet and nutty flavor, which I loved.

These muffins are quite filling. Just one in the morning keeps me going for hours!

MASTERING MY MISTAKES / COOKING NOTES

• Make sure to use large bananas: I made a batch with medium-sized bananas and my muffins ended up being very dry. Definitely use large bananas.
• Flour substitutions: The corn flour I’m using here is finely Bob’s Red Mill’s corn flour. It’s more finely ground than their polenta, and it’s not masa harina. If corn flour is difficult for you to find, replace it with another 1/2 cup of oat flour. You can also make this entirely with regular flour or whole wheat pastry flour, if you’re not gluten free. Use a total of 1 3/4 cups of flour, and leave out the tapioca starch. Because oat flour and corn flour are gluten free, I use tapioca starch to help bind the dough together so that the muffins don’t fall apart.
• Sugar substitutions: I liked the combination of the malty sweet flavors of coconut sugar and bananas. If coconut sugar is difficult to find, use brown sugar instead. I always love topping my muffins with a tiny sprinkle of turbinado sugar to give the muffins a crunch on the top. I believe demerara sugar is the same thing.

Oat & Corn Flour Banana Chocolate Muffins (Gluten Free)

Store these muffins in an airtight container at room temperature, and they will be good for 5 to 6 days!

• Author: Lisa Lin
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 9 Muffins

Ingredients

• 3 large, ripe bananas (about 1 1/3 cups mashed)
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 1/3 cup almond butter
• 3 tablespoons safflower oil (any other vegetable oil works, too), more for greasing muffin pan
• 3/4 cup (85g) coconut sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups (160g) oat flour
• 1/2 cup (70g) corn flour
• 1 tablespoon tapioca flour or starch
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces (115g) bittersweet dark chocolate, chopped
• turbinado sugar for topping (optional)
• oats for topping (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Slide an oven rack into the center position.
2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the yogurt, almond butter, oil, coconut sugar, egg and vanilla. Continue mixing until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
3. Add the oat flour, corn flour, tapioca flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt to the wet batter and stir until no dry streaks are visible. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
4. Grease the 9 wells in your muffin pan with oil. You shouldn’t need much more than 1/2 teaspoon per well. Distribute the batter evenly among the wells. I like using a large ice cream scoop for this.
5. Sprinkle a pinch of turbinado sugar and rolled oats on top of the muffins, if you like.
6. Bake the muffins for 25 to 28 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Notes

NUTRITION INFORMATION: Amount Per Muffin: Calories: 356, Total Fat 15.7g, Saturated Fat: 3.4g, Sodium: 256mg, Cholesterol: 21mg, Total Carbohydrate: 53g, Dietary Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 40g, Protein 6.3g

1. I find that mashing bananas with a fork leaves fewer lumps.
2. If you want to decorate the top of your muffins with banana slices, slice off a small chunk of banana, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches long. Cut that banana chunk into thin slices. Add those slices on top of the filled muffin wells before baking. You’ll probably need a few banana chunks for this.
3. Don’t use greek yogurt because there isn’t enough liquid in it.
4. If you are using chocolate chips, use about 2/3 to 3/4 cup of chips.