Raspberry banana crumble-top muffins for the Ratio rally

April 6, 2011 § 24 Comments


When I wrote of making Maria’s cannelloni, I spoke of my unease at not beginning with cup measurements. The starting point was “make sure you have two eggs, a bit of milk, a pinch of salt.” The rest was judging the consistency by trusting my eyes and instinct. The concept for a new gluten-free cook? Intimidating, surely, but the recipe did work.

It was not long after the cannelloni, that I read about Shauna launching the gluten-free Ratio Rally. Her goal is to encourage baking by weight: using measurements in either grams or ounces. If we bake by a set ratio of flour to liquid to eggs to fat, substituting ingredients is far more reliable than using cups. I then realised that when making the cannelloni, I had started with just the beginnings of a ratio: 2 eggs. The rest of the recipe had to develop from there.

How the Ratio Rally works is that each month, a group of gluten-free bloggers develop their own ratio-set recipe. Last month, it was pancakes. And for April, it’s muffins and quickbreads. I decided to contact Shauna to see if I could join in on the Rally. Her welcoming response of, “you  bet!” had me smiling and excited. Also a little nervous, to be honest. I’m still taking baby steps in the gluten-free baking world, and have taken even less as a food blogger. Yet I’d also been very happy with how these muffins had turned out, and by how much everyone at home had enjoyed them.

And so these raspberry and banana crumble-top muffins are my first contribution to the Ratio Rally. I had been making a banana muffin recipe quite a few times, but I also love some kind of fruit pieces in baked goods. How they give a little burst of sweetness, or moisture; or a stream of natural colour. Raspberries, with their slightly tart taste, seemed a good pair to sweet ripe bananas. For the Rally, I wanted to make them a little bit special, so I made a crumble-top for the muffins. A raspberry-flavoured crumble. The quinoa flakes make a lovely crunch, while the maple syrup sees the tops brown nicely. A crumbly and crunchy texture is a fine way to start your bite, before reaching the moist and sweet fruit below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ratio Rally is a wonderful way to have a list of trusted recipes for your gluten-free favourites, and recipes which you can tweak to suit your tastes and needs. Be sure to visit the site of this month’s host, Silvana, so that you can see the full list of gluten-free baking greatness. Thanks to Shauna for starting creating this great community, and to Silvana for hosting this month. I look forward to joining in again!

~Update, April 9: this recipe is now also linked to ‘Sweets for a Saturday’ and ‘Sweet Tooth Friday’, which are weekly baking blogger events held by Lisa at Sweet as Sugar Cookies and Allison at Alli-n-son. Thanks, Lisa and Allison, for inviting me to participate. Head over to their sites to see a weekly list of baking goodness.

Recipe notes:

The ratio for muffins and quickbreads is 2:2:1:1 of flour: liquid: egg: fat. From this starting point, we have all developed our own gluten-free muffin and quickbread recipes. With our trials and testing out of the way, you can be confident to substitute another flour, liquid, egg replacer or fat depending on what you have on hand and the ingredients you are able to use.

The bananas in these muffins make up the liquid component, and since they add a lot of density to baked goods, I lessened the fat (grapeseed oil). The starting point was 1 egg = 2 oz. So 1 part equals 2 oz. This makes my ratio: 3 parts flour: 3 parts liquid: 1 part egg: .75 parts fat. In weight measurements, this is: 6 oz flour: 6 oz liquid: 2 oz egg: 1.5 oz fat.

It’s also important to note the types of flours here. Almond flour is a moisture absorber, so baked goods using it are very dense. This means if you’d like to substitute another flour, the liquid amount may need to be lessened.

Recipe-Raspberry banana crumble-top muffins

Ingredients list
For the crumble-top:
  • 2 oz (1/2 cup) quinoa flakes
  • 4 oz (1 cup) almond flour
  • 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoons raspberry jam (I use St. Dalfour brand~no cane sugar)

For the muffins:

  • 2 oz (1/2) cup quinoa flakes
  • 2 oz (2/3) cup millet flour
  • 2 oz (1/2) cup almond flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 oz banana, mashed (3/4 cup or 2 medium bananas) ~not too ripe, just a few brown spots
  • 2 oz egg (1 large egg)
  • 1.5 oz (1/4 cup) grapeseed oil
  • 3 oz (1/4) cup honey
  • 3/4 cup raspberries

Method

To make the crumble-top:

  1. In a medium bowl, use a whisk or fork to combine the quinoa flakes and almond flour
  2. Add the grapeseed oil, maple syrup and jam. Use a knife to stir in circles until the mixture becomes crumbly

To make the muffins:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F and lightly brush with oil a 12-cup muffin tin
  2. In a large bowl, use a whisk or fork to combine the quinoa flakes, millet flour, almond flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt
  3. In a medium bowl, mash the bananas. Then add the egg, grapeseed oil and honey. Beat with a fork until all the ingredients are combined
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well until combined
  5. Gently fold in the raspberries and stir slowly to spread them throughout the batter
  6. Drop 3  tablespoons of batter into each muffin cup
  7. Cover the tops of the muffins with the crumble mixture. You can put on as much as you like: either completely cover the tops, or just a heaped teaspoon (those in the photos have a heaped teaspoon each)
  8. Place in the oven and bake for approx. 20 minutes. They are ready when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a baking rack and let cool before unmoulding.

~KateAlice.

About these ads

§ 24 Responses to Raspberry banana crumble-top muffins for the Ratio rally

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

«

»

What’s this?

You are currently reading Raspberry banana crumble-top muffins for the Ratio rally at katealice journal.

meta

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 57 other followers

%d bloggers like this: