Banana Mango Muffins (gluten free, dairy free, egg free)

Banana Mango Muffins
gluten free, dairy free, egg free
What do you do when you're trying to prepare your muffin for picture-taking on a 90 degree day at the end of May, with no air conditioning? Get down on your knees and pray that the entire wad of butter doesn't melt before you're done photographing them!

In developing this muffin recipe, a few of my goals included replacing my usual go-to white and/or brown sugar with healthier types of sweeteners, using a decent amount of high protein flours (as opposed to white and not very nutritious starches), and creating a perfect texture - not too dry, not too wet. I'll work backwards: take a look at the following picture - I love the texture of these muffins - not to moist, not to dry. Goldilocks would've been proud.


Regarding the flour choices, I was pleased. When I first mixed up the batter, I could definitely smell the tapioca starch and was none too pleased. I'm not a big fan of it, though I know it plays an important part in gluten free baking. But I have to say that once the muffins were baked, I wasn't aware of the tapioca. And the whites (tapioca and potato starch) take up an insignificant amount of the recipe. The brown rice flour, sorghum, and oatmeal are much more major players in this recipe.

These muffins, for my taste, were the perfect sweetness. Just the right amount of stevia and coconut sugar. This was my first experience baking with stevia. I kind I used is made by NuNaturals. I didn't think I'd like it, as I found it very strong - almost too sweet, at least right out of the bottle. But I really wanted to try it. Turns out that it bakes up beautifully. In fact, I'm psyched and can't wait to try using more of it.


Coconut sugar is a sweetener that I've been experimenting with for the last few months. I love the fact that it isn't cloyingly sweet. And it has lots of other benefits from its' nutritional makeup to how it's harvested to its' low glycemic index. Read more about it here.

If you make this recipe, when the muffins come out of the oven, resist tasting them. Let 'em hang out on top of the stove for five minutes, then take them out of the muffin pan and put them on a baking rack to cool. And then go find something to do! Don't even think about cutting them open or tasting them for at least an hour, if not more. I waited three hours. Gluten free baked items, more than not, need time to rest after baking. I'm not a chemist so I couldn't explain why this is so. But there have been a number of occasions when I didn't follow my own advice and instead impatiently cut into something I couldn't wait to try and because I hadn't waited, I incorrectly thought that something went wrong with the recipe, only to find out several hours later, after returning to the kitchen, that the failure turned out to actually be delicious.

Banana Mango Muffins (gluten free, dairy free, egg free)
click here for printable recipe

makes 12 muffins

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1/2 cup certified gluten free oats
1/2 cup coconut sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

1 tbsp egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup warm water, blended until frothy
1/2 dropper Vanilla Stevia
1/4 cup grapeseed oil (or light olive oil or melted coconut oil)
1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Add:
1/2 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup diced mango
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the wet ingredients and blend well. Add the banana, mango, and chopped walnuts and mix until just blended.

Pour batter into greased muffin tins or paper muffin liners, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake 20 - 25 minutes.

After removing from oven, let rest for 5 minutes. Then remove muffins and place on rack to cool for at least one hour, if not more.

Can you believe the difference in the lighting? I swear, these are the same muffins as in the pictures above!