For a whole grain, low sugar snack or breakfast, these Gluten Free Buckwheat Butterscotch Banana Muffins are a great option. Sweetened with pure maple syrup, bananas, and only a handful of butterscotch morsels.
It’s FALL BREAK!!!
What does that mean???
It means that my kids have been asking me since 6:00 this morning what we’re going to do today…and tomorrow…and the next day…and the next. I have a feeling it’s going to be a LOOONNNNNGG week.
Usually I run a 5 mile loop 4-5 mornings a week. Just to brace myself for the start of this “mom better get creative fast” kind of a week, I ran a full 8 miles this morning and walked an extra long cool down at the end. I needed that hour and a half mental prep time for sure!
So now that I’ve been home for a few hours, my kids are occupied coloring Halloween bookmarks, and we’re waiting for the rain to pass so we can do something fun…I figured I would share with you this recipe for Gluten Free Buckwheat Butterscotch Banana Muffins.
Try saying that five times fast: Buckwheat Butterscotch Banana, Buckwheat Butterscotch Banana, BUCKWHEAT BUTTERSCOTCH BANANA…
Or we could just call them Triple B Muffins and call it good. I didn’t even realize this little tongue twister in the title of these muffins until now. Kind of like how I didn’t realize all the B names in our family when we named our first daughter Braelyn.
The first time somebody said, “Aw how cute! Ben, Brielle, Braelyn. Are you sticking with B names???” I about had a heart attack! What have I done??? Am I THAT family?! No offense, I’m just not a fan of recycling the same letter over and over again with like 10 kids just so that I can confuse the heck out of everyone with what my childrens’ actual names are. It’s hard enough for me to remember one person’s name. Don’t tease me with trying to remember Jessica, Jenna, Joseph, Johnny, Julia, and Jared. That’s just cruel.
Anyway, you can bet that when I found out we were pregnant with Emry and people started asking me about names, all I said was, “Anything without a B!”
But I guess you don’t have the same liberty in changing the name of a muffin. You pretty much have to name it what it is. And what this is is a muffin with buckwheat, banana, and butterscotch. So there you go.
These muffins are lightly sweetened with pure maple syrup, so besides the handful of butterscotch chips, they are actually refined sugar free. You also get a little sweetness from adding the ripened banana into the batter. But since you’re only adding one banana to the recipe, these muffins don’t have a distinctive banana taste. It’s more of a background flavor.
And just because it’s fall around here, I had to add cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter. Get ready for all of my baked goods to have at least a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice for the next couple of months. Heck, I even added some nutmeg to my spaghetti sauce the other night. That was surprisingly delicious!
I love making muffins mini sized because, quite frankly, I don’t think that eating an entire regular sized muffin is the healthiest option. Especially since most muffins contain lots of sugar and are pretty high in fat.
Even though these muffins are relatively healthy with the natural sugar and whole grain buckwheat flour, I’ve just gotten into the habit of making all my muffins smaller. Plus it’s nice that my kids can spread out snacking on these muffins throughout the day, and by the end of the day they’ve only really eaten maybe the equivalent to a whole regular sized muffin. It’s my little trick to make them think they’re getting more when in reality they’re probably consuming less. Sneaky, sneaky.
I actually do the same thing with my cupcakes and cookies. I always make them mini sized. Now, of course, for pictures sake I always make a few larger so that all those yummy details can be captured on camera, but otherwise it’s mini all the way around here.
But mini definitely does NOT mean small in flavor. These mini muffins are subtly sweet with taste bud popping pockets of butterscotch flavor. You only need 3 or 4 little morsels of butterscotch in each muffin for that brown sugary, caramel-y, butterscotch-y flavor to shine through. And that undertone of cinnamon, nutmeg, and banana give each muffin that warm fall spice that everyone seems to be in the mood for.
I also love the fact that these muffins are mostly whole grain. The majority of the flour mixture is made up of buckwheat flour and oat flour, both of which are whole grain flours. That is one health benefit of gluten free baking. You tend to substitute that enriched all-purpose flour with a variety of whole grain flours.
However, that’s not typically the case when you use premixed gluten free flours. Most gluten free all-purpose baking flours are made primarily of white rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch, all of which are enriched and lacking in whole grains. That’s just another reason I believe it’s worth making your own flour blends. You choose which grains to use!
So whether you need a little extra pick me up for Fall break, or you just need a regular “get me through the next 24 hours” pick me up, these muffins offer a bite sized burst of flavor along with a bite sized burst of energy. Now attack your day!
What suggestions do you have to entertain children while school is out?
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 ripe medium banana, mashed
- ¼ cup sour cream (I used light)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon xanthan gum
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓ cup plus 2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
- ⅓ cup gluten free oat flour
- ¼ cup potato starch
- 2 tablespoons tapioca starch
- ¼-1/3 cup butterscotch morsels
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line mini muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, beat together egg, softened butter, and maple syrup until smooth.
- In a separate smaller mixing bowl, sift together salt, baking powder, xanthan gum, nutmeg, baking soda, buckwheat flour, oat flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch. Add half the dry ingredients to egg mixture and mix on low until incorporated.
- Add mashed banana and sour cream to the mixing bowl and mix on low until smooth. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Fold in ¼-1/3 cup butterscotch morsels (depending on desired sweetness).
- Fill mini muffin cups ⅔ way full and bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until tops of muffins spring back at the touch of a finger.
- Cool pan on cooling rack for 5 minutes. Remove muffins and continue cooling on rack until ready to serve.
- Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in freezer for up to 3 months.
Where to even BEGIN with my love for these muffins?:The alliteration? The mini-size (so cute!)? The fact that they are refined-sugar free? The fact that they use BUCKWHEAT flour <3 ? AWESOME-SAUCE all around, Brielle!
Thanks Leah! I think the no sugar in the muffin counterbalances the addition of butterscotch chips. Right??? Hehe!