Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

• servings: 12 servings
• active time: 20 minutes
• total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

3 medium bananas, finely mashed (about 330g peeled weight, 1½ cups mashed) (Use very ripe bananas.)

100 g (½ cup) light brown soft sugar

50 g (¼ cup) caster/superfine or granulated sugar

115 g (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

75 g (⅓ cup) full-fat plain or Greek-style yoghurt, room temperature

2 US large/UK medium eggs, room temperature

½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

270 g (2¼ cups) plain gluten free flour blend

1½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp xanthan gum (Omit if your gluten free flour blend already contains xanthan gum.)

¼ tsp salt

225 g (8 oz, about 1¼ cups) dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate (You can also use milk chocolate, if you wish.)

Directions

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC) and line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, light brown sugar, caster/superfine or granulated sugar, melted butter, yoghurt, eggs and vanilla until well combined.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and use a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon to mix everything together into a smooth batter with no flour clumps.

Add the chocolate, and mix well until it's evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Allow the muffin batter to stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Tip: This gives the gluten free flour blend time to absorb more of the moisture from the bananas, eggs and yoghurt, resulting in a thicker batter that will give you taller muffins with nicely domed tops.

Use an ice cream/cookie scoop or a spoon to divide the batter evenly between the muffin liners, filling each to the brim. You can top each muffin with some extra chocolate, if you wish.Tip: For beautifully domed, bakery-style muffins, it’s important that you fill the muffin liners VERY generously. They need to be filled to the brim or even dome slightly above the edge of the liners (because the batter is quite thick, it won’t overflow).

Bake at 375ºF (190ºC) for about 20-24 minutes or until the muffins are well risen, golden brown on top and an inserted toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. (Don’t worry if your toothpick comes out covered in chocolate, that’s to be expected – you just don’t want to see any half-baked batter or too many moist crumbs.)

Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin pan for about 5-10 minutes, then transfer them out of the pan and onto a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Storage:

The gluten free banana chocolate chip muffins keep well in a lightly covered container in a cool dry place for about 2-3 days.

Notes

To adj for altitude:

Add 2 Tbs flour so 285 g - 143 g tapioca, 71 g millet, 71 g buckwheat flours

Reduce brown sugar to 95 g

Reduce baking powder and soda by 1/8 tsp each

Add 2 tsp yogurt for moisture

Cook at 390 degrees for altitude for less time-try 18 min?

I didn’t have enough banana so I added the rest of the weight in applesauce. (2 1/2 bananas)