First I made heavy, dense, gummy, gross muffins. Then I made gooey muffins. Then I made crumbly muffins, which were acceptable, but not excellent. These, however, are just right. Moist, yet light. Good texture without crumbling. And oh so tasty! I may have had two and a half today.
Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Walnut Muffins
Author: Brandi Fox
Makes: 12
Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life allergy free dark chocolate chips)
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Wet Ingredients:
1 banana
3 Tbsp flaxmeal + 1/2 cup boiling water
1 Tbsp molasses
4 Tbsp sunflower (or other mild flavored) oil
1 Tbsp vanilla (this is homemade, so not as strong, reduce to 1 tsp for store-bought)
1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used coconut "beverage" that comes in a box, not the canned stuff)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees (or if you have convection, 350 degrees). Line a 12 cup muffin tin with parchment paper or cupcake liners.
First combine your flax and boiling water in a small bowl, and set aside. It will gel up into a thick slurry as it sits. In another small dish, combine the non-dairy milk and vinegar, and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients other than chocolate and walnuts in a large bowl and whisk until evenly combined. Then stir in chocolate and walnuts.
In a medium bowl, mash up your banana. Add your flax slurry, molasses, oil, vanilla, and milk/vinegar. Whisk well to combine. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture.
Fold and gently stir to combine, scraping sides. I like to use a flat silicone spatula for this. From what I've read, gluten free baking is actually more forgiving when it comes to handling. With wheat, you always want to be very gentle when stirring batter for muffins and cakes, mixing only until just combined. This is to avoid activating the gluten. No gluten, no worries. But there's no reason to over mix. So just stir until it's all wet.
Spoon into lined muffin tin. I ran out of cupcake liners. Parchment paper cut into squares works in a pinch. At altitude EVERYTHING STICKS. It's ridiculous.
Bake until golden brown on top (these browned beautifully, much better than my wheat ones ever did!) and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (assuming you don't hit a chocolate chip). Mine were done in exactly 20 minutes.
Lookin' good!
Remove to a baking rack to cool so that your bottoms don't get soggy. No one wants a soggy bottom.
I honestly think these are better than my wheat recipe. They have a nice brown crust and a moist inside. You could easily switch out blueberries or other fruit for the chocolate chips. They have a very subtle banana flavor. You could add another banana if you wanted (I'd reduce the oil to 2 Tbsp, though). This is a very versatile recipe.
Now, for food geeks like me, I'll share a little bit of what is working and why:
First, I'm at altitude. It's the Mile High City, after all. You may need to make adjustments if you are down at sea level. I have found that vegan baking at altitude turns out better (lighter) if you make "buttermilk" by adding a little vinegar or lemon juice to your non dairy milk. Things rise more easily up here, too. The danger is over-rising and then falling. So, generally you reduce the baking powder a bit. Therefore, if you are at sea level, you may want to go up to 2 1/2 tsp of baking powder. Altitude also affects temperature. Everything I've ever read says to increase temperature and reduce baking time. However, that has resulted in burnt food every time I've tried it. For me and my oven, reducing the temp works best. I'd say start at 375 for these, as that is pretty standard.
One of the most interesting things I discovered with Gluten Free is that it is good friends with Vegan. At first I was afraid to leave out the eggs. I tried making the Joy of Cooking muffin recipe just substituting rice flour for the wheat and using the vegan "buttermilk" while keeping the egg. They were okay. But not exceptional. A little on the crumbly side, particularly after freezing. After reading about substituting flax for xanthan gum, I felt braver about ditching the eggs. I've always had success using 1 tbsp of flaxmeal plus 3 tbsp of water as an egg substitute for vegan baking. When I read that flax plus boiling water creates that gum-like binding property I wanted to give it a shot. So, for these I used 1 tbsp flaxmeal with 1/4 cup boiling water. It worked great! Yay!
For the flour/starch combo: You want a total of 2 cups. I've read that about 30-40% should be starch, and the rest a combination of flours. Rice flour is light and grainy. Almond flour is dense and moist. Together they are delightful! Almond flour (or meal) is high in fat, so the more of that you use, the less oil you will want. Keep that in mind if you want to tweak the ratios. For the starch, I used potato. It is flavorless. I like it. There are others you could try, too, though.
This new baking adventure has been scary and frustrating. I really prefer cooking to baking because I like being able to taste and adjust as I go. With baking, I spend a half hour or more working on something, plus the expense of the ingredients, and have no idea how it is going to turn out. I am so very happy these turned out so well. And I'm really glad I took notes while baking them! Haha!
