The Pinterest Foodie: Gluten Free Banana Muffins

Today I wanted to share some muffins I made that were a big hit in the house and they are Glutten Free! Now we are not a completely Gluten Free household, but I have heard the benefits of going Gluten Free and I've also read some articles about Wheat that don't paint wheat in such a great light. (well the current wheat that has been altered genetically) Luckily, we don't have anyone in our family that HAS to go Gluten Free but we like to stay away from wheat and I've been trying to adjust some of my baked goods to Gluten Free.

So I've made these Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins for many, many years and I had already been adjusting the recipe to add some healthiness to them, but I thought I would experiment even more and make them Gluten Free.

Now I can't say 100% sure that they are Gluten Free, but I think they are. (I'm not sure if Flax Seed Meal is Gluten Free??)

Here's the ORIGINAL RECIPE from The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook:

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins: (NOT GLUTEN FREE)

1/2 cup Butter
3/4 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 Cup mashed Bananas
2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Salt
3/4 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Chopped Walnuts (I just add them to the top of a few muffins b/c the girls don't like them)

Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add the vanilla and mashed bananas. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, soda, salt and choc. chips. Add to the creamed mixture and stir until just blended; the batter will be lumpy. Pour into greased muffin tins and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

My 1st variation: (with the Flax Seed Meal)

Instead of 2 cups of All purpose Flour, I mix 1 1/4 cups All purpose and 3/4 cup Flax Seed Meal. (ground flax seeds) I've done this for years and it gives the muffins a GREAT flavor, color and added health benefit.

My Gluten Free Variation:

This I did from googling online how to adjust a recipe to GF. It's a bit tricky, but if you have all the ingredients it's easy. (I had a bit of a trial and error timeframe until I looked on the internet)

Instead of the 2 Cups of All Purpose Flour, I use 2 cups of Gluten Free Flour. This can be a mixture you buy from the store that is already a blend of GF flours or you can purchase about 3 different GF Flours and mix together. (i.e. Potato, Rice and Millet or whatever your choices are) Then you have to ADD 1 Tsp. Baking Powder and DELETE the 1 Tsp. Salt. (So it's just 1 tsp BP and 1 tsp BS) Then you add 1/2 Tsp. of Xanthium Gum. It's like a powder/flour but it's the binding that keeps it all together so it's a very important step! These are all ingredients you can get a local health store like Henrys, Mothers or such. They bake for about the same amount of time, maybe a couple minutes less.

Here's a picture of the GF goodness: