Banana Bread II

Round 2 of banana bread experimenting. Done, of course, instead of working on the last chapter of my thesis. Productive? No. Fun and relaxing? Absolutely.

I should probably be more specific in my interpretation of banana bread this go-round. How about low-fat, high-fiber apple banana oat muffins? Yum.

I was looking around on one of my favorite recipe sites, allrecipes.com, for a cupcake recipe to convert to gluten-free. I came across a couple of banana cupcake, apple banana cupcake, and banana oat cupcake recipes and it dawned on me that I had never thought to use these ingredients together. It also dawned on me that I could make my own low-fat recipe (adapted from compiling a few of the ones I saw) and it would be a super healthy breakfast. The best part is that everything in these muffins is stuff you probably already have.

• 1 cup mashed banana (I used two bananas)
• 1/2 to 1 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 & 1/2 cups gluten-free flour blend (I used Pamela's GF baking mix)
• 1 cup gluten-free oats
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Combine banana, applesauce, brown sugar, honey, eggs, and chopped apple. Slowly fold in dry ingredients until just moistened. Bake in greased muffin pan for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and tops are golden brown. (Note, this recipe should probably make about 18 small muffins, but I used my pan that makes bakery-sized muffins and I made six huge ones. These had to bake about 30 minutes, and they probably could have used a little more than that.)

Ta da!

I definitely ate one of these for dessert. And will be eating another one in about 12 hours when I have breakfast. De-lish.

You can really taste the apple in these. Part of me really likes the chunks of apple, and the other part of me thinks I should have cut them up a little smaller. Oh well - at least I know I'm eating fruit in my baked goods! The banana doesn't come through as much, but there's definitely a hint of it in the background. The muffins came out very moist, and they are pretty dense - definitely a hearty breakfast...at least compared to my usual on-the-go type breakfast, if I get to eat it. This is like a portable bowl of oatmeal with apples and bananas and a touch of cinnamon. It's going to go fabulously with my coffee.

Off to work on school stuff. Good night!
Kelly