With the school holidays rapidly approaching I need to get my baking mojo back into action. When the kids are at home they seem to eat ALL THE TIME and if they’re anything like me, the cold weather is going to make them even more hungry!
Even since I starting reading the Quirky Cooking blog I’ve started to get a lot braver and more experimental with healthier ingredients. I would never in a million years have thought of baking with brown rice or quinoa before, but Jo has them in so many of her recipes and they just seem to work. I have to use them in smaller doses though because when I’ve baked using only the healthy stuff, my goods get flatly rejected by the kids.
Comprise is the key (and a few added chocolate chips). These muffins are delicious – especially if you have one straight out of the oven with a cup of tea. Master J told me they were the best muffins I’ve ever made. High fives for me!! They don’t actually have any caramel in them but the white chocolate tastes like caramel when baked and my kids call these my banana and caramel muffins (just in case you were wondering).
I use plain flour because I find that gluten free flour makes them very crumbly, which just results in mess when my kids eat them – but you can quite easily use gluten flour if you wanted to and they taste just as good. You can also replace the almonds with plain flour if you wanted to make them nut for school lunch boxes.
So here it is, my (almost) healthy banana and caramel muffin recipe.
- 100g brown rice
- 100g raw almonds
- 50g quinoa flakes
- 90g plain (or gluten free) flour
- 20g macadamia oil (you could also use rice bran or coconut oil)
- 120g maple syrup
- 40g coconut cream
- 2 eggs
- 250g very ripe bananas
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp bicarbonate soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 120g white chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Put the brown rice and almonds into the thermomix and whizz for 1 minute on speed 9.
- Add the quinoa flakes, flour, oil, maple syrup, coconut cream, eggs, bananas and vanilla to the bowl.
- Mix on speed 8 for 2 minutes.
- Scrape down the sides and repeat for another minute.
- Add the baking powder, bicarbonate soda and salt and mix on speed 5 for 5 seconds.
- Add the chocolate chips and gently fold in with a silicone spatula.
- Spoon the mixture evenly into muffin cups (I use silicone ones) until they are ¾ full.
- Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until they are golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Allow to cool and enjoy
Have you ever baked using brown rice or quinoa before?
Enjoy the school holidays :))
19 comments on “(almost) Healthy banana and caramel muffin recipe”
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Ummm all I have to say is drool!!!! I love how easy the thermo makes everything and this muffin combination is exactly what I love! I am definitely trying them over the holidays! Thank you so much for linking up with our Fabulous Foodie Fridays party and sharing your foodie love around! xx
Thanks for having me!! I think I’ll be doing a lot of baking over the hols as I’m pretty sure the kids will be doing alot of eating!! x
Wow, no I haven’t used brown rice or quinoa in a muffin recipe before! How interesting. Sounds delicious though 🙂 Visiting from With Some Grace #FYBF
It’s a very strange combination isn’t it? But I can assure it works and I’m all up for getting a sneaky bit of goodness into the kids whenever I can xx
OMG, Robyn! These look absolutely delicious! You’ve inspired me to go a little braver too! 🙂
Thanks lovely!! You should try it – and let me know how you go!! I’ve had a few disaster but theses ones were winning xxx
Yum these look amazing a perfect school holiday treat!
Thanks Amy. Hope you all have a good school holiday xx
Yum! I do love anything with bananas and caramel, it’s simply a match for the food gods! And I totally know what you mean about kids just eating the house down in the school holidays, it’s a constant race between making food and them eating it!
Lol, yes it sure is!! So much better to bake if you can too. Hope you guys have a fab holiday too xx
Now I would never have thought of putting brown rice and nuts into the Themrie to make cakes… but will give it a bash. Such a lot of great ingrediants there. i do love my Thermie, I’ve perfected my fave lemon and coconut balls and took some photos when I made some today. These look great and I must and shall try them.
Jo at Quirky cooking has some really strange baking ingredient which I would never have thought of either but they just seem to work! Those lemon and coconut balls sound great – must get the recipe from you. How are you school hols going?? The weather has been spectacular so far hasn’t it? x
These look so yum! I’m definitely going to have to give them a go! XX
Hope you enjoy them Natalie xxx
Yum. We’re on school holidays as of this afternoon. I can see some baking of muffins in the next couple of weeks too.
Yay for school holidays!!! and happy baking to you too. Have fun xxx
Love the idea of adding brown rice and quinoa. Much healthier than our school holiday cooking which has involved a lot of sugar and butter. Might have to give these a whirl 🙂
I am trying my best to avoid the whole butter sugar combo when baking as I end up eating way too much and my hips are not thanking me for it!! xx
AMAZING recipe – not too sweet, absolutely hits the spot when you want a “healthy” treat.