Flour Mixes- GF

Bring a basket of old–fashioned banana nut muffins to your breakfast table and watch them disappear. They are a delicious way to start the morning, and they smell heavenly while baking in the oven. Even if you didn’t think you were a banana bread lover, this simple, flavorful recipe will convert you. Loaded with ripe bananas and sweet walnuts, these muffins are full of vitamin B, vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, and omega–3 fatty acids. They take just a few minutes to make and they keep well in the refrigerator and freezer so you can enjoy them for several days, or even weeks after you make them. Annalise Roberts

Makes 12 muffins or three 5 x 3–inch loaves

2 cups Brown Rice Flour Mix (see below)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 packed cup very ripe chopped banana  (about 2 medium bananas)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (or rice milk)
1/2 cup canola oil
Granulated sugar for garnish, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Position rack in center of oven. Grease muffin pan with cooking spray (or three 5 x 3 -inch loaf pans).

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Add bananas and walnuts; stir to coat evenly.

3. Combine milk and oil in small bowl; remove 1 tablespoon of combined liquid and discard it. Beat in eggs. Add liquids to banana mixture and stir until just blended.

4. Fill muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake 18–25 minutes until golden brown (35–44 minutes for loaf pans). Remove from pan and serve immediately or cool on a rack.

Cook’s notes: Muffins and bread can be stored in a tightly sealed plastic container in refrigerator or covered with plastic wrap and then with foil, and stored in freezer for up to three weeks.

Best when eaten within three days of baking. Re-warm briefly in microwave.

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 cups extra finely ground brown rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch (not potato flour), 1/3 cup tapioca starch/flour. It is very important that you use an extra finely ground brown rice flour, (and not just any grind) or the muffins will be gritty and heavy. Authentic Foods in California and King Arthur Flour Company make a good one.

For more Food Philosopher’s® Gluten-Free recipes go to: www.foodphilosopher.com.

© 2008 by Annalise Roberts

Annalise Roberts – Annalise is one of the Food Philosophers®, two sisters who have collaborated to become a voice of reason in a world of mealtime disorder. After being diagnosed with celiac disease in 2002, Annalise devoted herself to developing gluten-free baking recipes that taste just as good (if not better than) their wheat flour counterparts. Gourmet magazine featured several of her recipes in their November, 2005 issue. An expanded and revised edition of her best-selling book, Gluten-Free Baking Classics, was released in September 2008. Gluten-Free Baking Classics for the Bread Machine, a collection of recipes developed for the Zojirushi bread machine came next. Annalise and her sister, Claudia Pillow then joined forces to write The Gluten-Free-Good Health Cookbook, (released January 2010). The focus of this unique work is on managing daily food-related decisions in order to strengthen the immune system, prevent disease and lose weight by eating real food. It provides food choice explanations and guidance, cooking advice, and more than 100 flavorful, culturally diverse (gluten-free) recipes. Annalise works with gluten-intolerant individuals and support groups across North America and teaches gluten-free cooking and baking classes in the New York metropolitan area. She loves to cook and entertain and as a result, spends a lot of time on a treadmill and doing weight resistance training. But she is also careful about what she eats, tries to balance alkaline and acid based foods, and drinks a couple quarts of water a day.

Tina Turbin
www.GlutenFreeHelp.info