Strawberry and banana bread muffins - paleo + sugar free

I wonder how many bakes watching the ‘Great British Bake Off’ stimulates. After watching the ‘free-from’ special on Wednesday (finally representing the allergies) I decided to whip up a fresh batch of muffins to gorge on for the rest of the week. The danger of being solo with 12 muffins is slightly reduced by the fact that these are healthy…

Another excuse to consume more bananas, these muffins have the consistency of banana bread with fresh bursts of fruit inside. The lack of gluten makes these a lot denser so don’t be put off if they don’t have the fluffiness of your usual muffin, the taste more than makes up for it.

RECIPE (makes 12)

Ingredients:

2 mashed ripe bananas

2 eggs **

½ cup almond milk ½ cup unsweetened applesauce (I use apple babyfood) 1 teaspoon gf vanilla extract 2 cups of gluten free flour of choice (oat/buckwheat/brown rice) 1 tablespoon ground chia or flaxseed pinch of salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon gf baking soda 1 tbsp of 100% stevia powder (or alternative sweetener or none at all) ¼ cup water ½ cup diced strawberries (frozen) ½ cup chopped banana (frozen) 2 tbsp roasted and crushed pumpkin seeds for topping.

Method:

Chop up the strawberries and extra banana and freeze. By freezing the fruits they retain there shape more during the cooking.

Preheat the oven to 220C.

In a large bowl/ blender combine the mashed banana, eggs, vanilla, milk and apple sauce until a smooth consistency.

In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and the water and fold until the batter is smooth.

Mix in the frozen fruit (++ any other extras) and stir until evenly spread.

Lightly grease a muffin tray with light cooking spray/ butter or coconut oil.

Pour the batter to the top of the muffin cases and scatter the crushed pumpkin seeds over the top with a little cinnamon. (++i added a slice of strawberry on each)

Bake for 10 minutes undisturbed at 220C to give the muffins that lovely rise. Then reduce the temperature to 180 and bakes for a further 20-25mins or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Then remove from the muffin trays and place on a rack to cool completely.

*Muffins can be frozen and reheated at a later date.

**make vegan by subbing the eggs for chia/ flax eggs (2 tbsp chia/ flax with 6 tbsp water leave to stand for 10mins)