Banana Maple Bread

I wasn't sure what to do when I woke up extremely early this Saturday morning when I didn't have pastry school at 8am, so what did I do? I got in the kitchen and baked. First I prepared custard cups for creme caramel to be finished later that day. Then, feeling once again inspired by Love Veggies and Yoga's simple/healthy/vegan/gluten free/delicious recipes, I made a tiny batch of banana maple muffins. They were insanely delicious with strong maple flavor and a nice chewy texture. I love this recipe because all you need is a fork and a large bowl to mix the ingredients in- barely any mess! All of the ingredients can be found at Trader Joe's too.

With just one over-ripe banana, this recipe makes four muffins. You could easily multiple the ingredients by three, and get a dozen muffins.

A few days later I multiplied this recipe by SIX (I had to get rid of six bananas, ok!?) and it was still delicious. I tried swapping crunchy peanut butter for the almond butter and next time I will stick with almond butter, the flavor profile matched the other ingredient's flavors better.


The best is when you get a little pocket of maple syrup in the muffin, yummm.

Banana Maple Muffins
vegan, gluten free

Ingredients (to make 4 muffins):

• 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1 medium over-ripe banana, mashed
• 1/3 cup unsalted raw almond butter
• 1/3 cup almond flour (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix flax seeds through banana in a medium bowl until well combined. In another bowl mix together the flour(s) through salt. Mix the dry ingredients in to wets until well combined. Pour the batter in to lined muffin tins. Bake for about 18-24 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Pastry School in Pictures

Now I understand why there aren't very many blogs out there chronicling pastry school, there's no time! Here is the past few weeks in pictures (some are my creations, others are not):

All these delicious pastries are made with Pate au Choux dough

Gateuau Paris-Brests

Gougere (with egg white salad) for Blue Grass Festival

Profiterols with vanilla ice cream

Lemon Souffle

 

Strawberry Mousse

Chocolate Mouse with whipped cream and chocolate curls

That's how the center is supposed to look. Chef hacked it open to show us :)