Paleo-ish Bunner’s-ish Banana Muffins

Okay, okay, I know I have broken the rules of the Fall Food Blogger by posting two non-Fall recipes in a row while apples and squashes abound the markets and my Instagram feed, but I went home to TO last weekend, taking a mini-break from school and the blog.

And what a mini-break it was!  As I mentioned on Instagram a couple of days ago, after spending the past few months running from school to work to the gym to the market and back to school again it was amazing to do NOTHING school/blog/work-related on Saturday.

Instead, I woke up early to do a brutal workout at the gym that left me collapsed in a heap at the end, sweaty and slightly torn up. (I have a love-hate relationship going with my programming coach.)  I know…I sound crazy.  My BF constantly reminds me that as I consider workouts that leave me gasping for air and unable to stand ‘fun’, I must clearly not understand what the word, ‘fun’ means.  Nevertheless, the BF actually came to the gym with me at 9 am on a Saturday morning to count my reps, guide my runs, and clean up my whirling dervish of chalk.  Isn’t he the best?!

After I cleaned myself up, I met up with two of my closest TO friends for a short road trip to explore a super quaint borough just outside of TO.  It was filled with fabulously original farmhouses that made me think of home (a.k.a. Niagara-on-the-Lake).  Indeed, I was so enraptured by the town, it actually completely slipped my mind to take a pic.  (Sorry about that).  I wish I could have stayed longer to explore the town, but high tea with cucumber sammiches and scones were calling my name, so I gladly went to where they were at (it was worth the Benadryl)!

When I got back to TO that afternoon, the BF decided that we shouldn’t waste the oh-so-rare occasion of my being all dressed up (read: I had eye-liner on and my shirt wasn’t covered in gym chalk.  For me, that is one level shy of being dressed to the nines.  Find me wearing a real bra, and you can assume I’m going to a wedding or something really big is going down).  He took me out to The Oxley in Yorkville for some Tawse Winery cider.  The Oxley was super cool!  It’s done up to be like a traditional English pub but with loud floral 1970’s-ish wall paper (but the fun lime green and blue colour scheme rather than horrid burnt orange and brown) and antique tables and chairs.  The wall paper was so cool, my first instinct was to feel it.  Can’t say why, but I did.  It felt like a wall with paper on it…quelle surprise, right?

Newho…I’m a huge cider fan, particularly dry ciders, and man was that cider good!  I only wish they offered it in cans/bottles so I could bring it back to MTL with me.  My parents are huge wine fans, particularly my mother with her tunnel-vision for Canadian Chardonnays, and Tawse is a winery that has been featured on our dinner table several times.  That being said, I am definitely a bigger cider fan than a wine fan (though I’ll never turn down a full-bodied fruity red if you’re offering), so I was super stoked to hear that one of the top Niagara wineries was delving into the land of ciders as well.  They may as well right?  They’ve established themselves as a winery, why not branch out a bit? (#punintended. #sorrynotsorry haha!)  Besides after grape vines, apples are Niagara’s second largest produce market. (Ok, probably not really, but they produce a LOT of apples).

Finished our ciders, we decided to wander through Indigo where there was a live pianist softly playing movie soundtracks and jazz in the background.  It has been years since I spent time walking through a book store and it used to be one of my favourite things to do.  Turns out it still is considering my BF found me behind a shelf in the cookbook section drooling over new books like Eva Kosmas Flores’ book “Adventures in Chicken” and Bobbette and Belle’s cookbook!  Eva Kosmas Flores’ book was already on my radar (and Christmas List) given that I follow her Instagram feed and love her photos.  So really, the surprise for me was the Bobbette and Belle cookbook.

You have no freakin idea how excited I was to find out that Bobbette and Belle have a cookbook.  In fact, when I saw the book, I was riffling through the “Eat like a Gilmore Girl” cookbook; a fairly ridiculous ploy/cash grab since ANYONE who has watched or is currently re-watching GG before the 4-part special comes out on Netflix knows, the Gilmore Girls don’t cook.  While the title doesn’t suggest that they cooked the food in it, there’s no way you would be able to eat like them if you don’t make the food yourself.   So yea…Nice try folks.  Nevertheless, the ploy worked well enough that I picked it up, but I legit tossed it backwards and sideways on the shelf when I saw the Bobbette and Belle cookbook (again #sorrynotsorry).

Those of you in TO who have never been to Bobbette and Belle, go now!  Seriously!  Their Carrot Cake is OUT OF THIS WORLD!  They make the smart choice by refusing to foul things up with fruit like pineapple or raisins.  Instead of walnuts, they use the perfect amount pecans (a much tastier nut if you ask me, even if the only one I can eat is walnuts).  AND beyond the perfectly sweetened cream cheese frosting, they have caramel literally dripping over the sides of the cake.  CARAMEL!!!!

AND get this, their cookbook has their Carrot Cake recipe in it!  SO freakin excited!!!!!  I’m sure it has other recipes in there.  I didn’t look.  I went straight to the cakes section to see if the Carrot Cake was in there and when I saw that it was, I put the book on my Christmas List. (Remember: I’m a broke grad student.  Otherwise, I would have been running straight to the cash register).

Sadly, my lovely Saturday came to an end and I had to go to school and work on Monday.  However, given how awesome my Saturday was, I was beyond productive on Sunday while I travelled back to MTL.   I’m fairly certain that I got the same amount of work done on Sunday as I would have between both days if I hadn’t taken Saturday off.  Ok…maybe not the SAME, but I’m going to tell myself that so that I can perhaps justify another stress-free day in the near future.  I’m hoping that it may help me keep my head above water/in the right space throughout the next few weeks of impending exams.  Ugh.

Now…if I didn’t have time to take photos this past weekend, you may be wondering why the heck you’re here.  Luckily, I had photos of my Paleo-ish Bunner’s-ish Banana muffins saved up for just such an occasion!  I took these photos back in August when I was at my parent’s place, so they have a distinctly Summer morning vibe.  On second thought, that may not be the worst thing since Winter is supposed to hit TO and MTL early next week…

Newho…like Bobbette and Belle, those of you in TO who have never been to Bunner’s need to drop everything and go now.  They’re in Kensington and their original non-farmstand location is in the West End.  They serve a completely different crowd than the Bobbette and Belle folks given that they’re a gluten-free and vegan bakery, but they make some pretty darn good stuff.  Their brownies rock, they make doughnuts (!), and they have these pizza pocket thingies that bring back fond memories of my middle-school years.

As you may have also guessed by now, they also have a cookbook!  In fact, modifying Bunner’s recipes was the first step I took to adapting baking for myself post-culinary-leperdom diagnosis.  I figured that if the recipe was already adapted to be vegan (a.k.a egg and dairy free), I could futz around with the dry ingredients to find a mix that works for me (since I have yet to find a gluten free flour blend that I can eat).

This muffin recipe is awesome!!  It’s super easy to make, and the muffins yielded are moist and squishy!  When eaten warm and fresh out of the oven, they almost melt in your mouth.  Like everything else I make, you honestly would never know that they’re dairy, egg, and gluten free!  I do use sugar, canola oil, and oat flour in them though.  a.k.a. they’re not Paleo.  I’ve added a coconut sugar and oil sub to the recipe for those who would like to get them as close to Paleo as possible. I would honestly still use the oat flour though; lest the tenderness of these muffins completely dissipate. And, like all Banana muffin/cake/bread recipes, this one gives you the perfect excuse to use those brown bananas you can’t bring yourself to eat on their own.

So…what I’m really trying to tell you folks is that you should make these muffins!  Yum!

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So…you may not believe me on this, but this recipe is actually so easy, I don’t have any tips or tricks for making it even easier!  I also use ingredients that are readily available in most grocery stores, the exception being the oat flour.

For those of you who need to get oats which are certified wheat-free, I would recommend oat flours like Only Oats Pure Whole Grain Oat Flour or Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Whole Grain Oat Flour.  For those of you who don’t want to get oat flour, you can put regular oats in your blender (smoothie blenders are the best for this; especially if they have ‘spice’ blender attachments/cups).  Just make sure you have a 1/2 cup of oat flour at the end of it. Simply putting 1/2 cup of oats in the blender and hoping you’ll have the same amount after doesn’t always work that well.

Finally, This recipe technically has a little bit of corn starch in it because as I mentioned in my Paleo-ish Chocolate Chip Cookie and Paleo-ish Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles posts, baking powder also contains corn starch.  It’s not enough to give me itch bubbles, but for those who are severely allergic/intolerant to corn should add 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the dry ingredients AND 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar to the wet ingredients before mixing the wet and dry together.  This prevents the baking soda and cream of tartar from reacting too early.

That’s it for this week folks!  Next week, I promise I’ll have a Fall recipe up for you (even if Winter decides to flirt with us a bit first)!

Ciao for now!