Banana Buckwheat Muffins

Banana Buckwheat Muffins

Being home during the pandemic has allowed for a lot more time to bake.  This is evident for many people it seems as it is getting increasingly difficult to find flour and yeast. 

So I decided to try a recipe I have never tried with some other flours I had in the house.  This is a slight adaptation from the original recipe found in Nourishing Meals by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre.

Banana muffins are a staple in my house, so I thought this would be a easy recipe to try and especially test out on the kids to see if they would notice a difference.  These muffins are dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free and refined sugar-free.  They are great for anyone who has allergies to any of these ingredients.

I've never used buckwheat flour before, but I had recently picked up a small bag by Bob's Red Mill to try out.    The muffins smelled amazing - just like any other banana muffin I've made before.  They had a much darker colour, almost like I had mixed cocoa in it.  The muffins were a little denser than I'm used to, but they still had a very texture.  The flavour is distinct; I'm assuming it is the buckwheat flour.  It was not subtle and the kids definitely picked up on the flavour and of course for them it was "not a banana muffin" anymore.  That is not to say that it was still not good.  My husband and I enjoyed the muffins, but it is definitely different from what I was used to.

So without further ado.....here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
Dry:
2-1/4 cups buckwheat flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet:
2 cups mashed bananas (about 5 bananas)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup avocado oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used oat milk)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

3. In another (medium) bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.  Begin with about 1/2 cup of the milk.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together.  If the batter is too thick, add more milk up to the other 1/2 cup.  The batter should come off the whisk, but not so much that it is thin and runny.

4. Fill each cup all the way.  If you fill 3/4 of the way, you will get about 18 muffins instead.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.