Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

My kitchen is under siege.

The Yobaby yogurt is tucked away in the back of the fridge behind cartons of orange juice and 2% millk.  The cheese is in a colored container to make it less visible.  Apples, raisins, and cereal are never left on the counter for extended periods of time.

And sadly, we've dismantled my banana tree and have taken to hiding the bananas inside the cabinet with my Pyrex baking dishes. 

We're neither preparing for another blizzard, nor is this some strange attempt to stockpile and save money at CVS.

My toddler has discovered food jags.

She dances around the house and then goes to the kitchen and announces she wants a snack.  "Nana!" "Yobaby!" "Cheeeeze!" With a smile in her eyes and a puppy-dog pout she managed to fill up on snacks instead of eating her sandwich for lunch, or her chicken for dinner.  Before we realized how diabolical she could be, she conned her way into eating 3-4 bananas in one day.

And that could not be allowed to continue.

This is especially true because mornings are so hectic here that it's easiest to grab a muffin, head out the door, and eat it from the safety of my car.  Where my favorite almost-two-year-old can't cry and beg for large pieces of my breakfast.

My favorite muffin is banana chocolate chip.

Banana chocolate chip muffins are meant to be used with the mushiest bananas that you have lying around.  Unfortunately, we're lucky if the bananas haven't been devoured before they finish turning yellow.  So, since I'm all for instant gratification since I wasn't going out in this weather to buy more bananas, I decided to make banana chocolate chip muffins with my just-turned-ripe-bananas.

I originally was not planning on trying out my Cuisinart Smart Stick with this recipe.

But the bananas would. not. mash.

I tried a spatula.  I tried a metal fork.  I tried a wooden spoon.

NADA.

I debated pulling out my ginarmous large cup capacity food processor and making the muffins in there, but I really wasn't in the mood to clean a steel blade, lid, bowl, and the bowl that I had already started using to make the muffins.

And then I remembered this blog.


And I felt like an absolute idiot.

I pulled the immersion blender attachment out of the drawer, plugged it in, and got the bananas to go to that perfect thick-mashed-banana-consistency.  Plus using the blender cut down on the time it took to blend in the sugar, oil, and ground flaxseed.

Feel free to omit the flax seed.  Just replace the 1 cup flax seed with 1/3 cup oil.  I use the flax seed because it makes me feel less guilty about eating a cupcake for breakfast.  In place of the brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, and xanthan gum you can use 1 3/4 c. regular all purpose flour, or your favorite gluten free mix.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients:
3 very ripe bananas (mashed using the Cuisinart Smart Stick)
2/3 c. white sugar
1 tbsp oil
1 cup ground flaxseed
2 eggs
1 c. brown rice flour
½ c. potato starch
¼ c. tapioca flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 ¼ c. semisweet chocolate chips

Baking Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12-muffin cup pan with paper liners.  Then, in a large mixing bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder and soda, the xanthan gum, and the salt.  In a separate bowl combine the mashed bananas with the sugar.  Add the oil and the flax seeds to the bananas and sugar; mix well. Next, add the eggs, one at a time.  Mix the sifted dry ingredients into the banana mixture until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and then pour into muffin cups.  Bake in the center of the middle oven rack, for approximately 25-30 minutes.  Begin checking for doneness after 25 minutes, by inserting a toothpick into the center of the muffin.  If it comes out clean the muffins are done baking.  Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes inside the muffin tins, and then remove the liners from the muffin cups.  Cool the individual muffins on a wire rack.

Freezes really well.

Yield: 12 oversize muffins