When I was little, I remember trailing our shopping cart through Costco, delighted every time we passed (and stopped at) a sample table – getting to savor a bite of sausage or a cracker or a tiny cup of smoothie made with an on-sale blender. But the best part of those shopping trips were the muffins. If you’ve ever had a Costco muffin, you most likely have a similar nostalgia around these larger-than-life bakery flats. Because they were huge! At the time of first eating them, they may even have been bigger than my face – a muffin that, when cut into quarters, would more resemble a normal, homemade-sized muffin. And they came in giant flats, four of each kind crowded in rows of dozen-muffin trays wrapped in plastic and ready for the devouring. They were also gosh darn cheap (as many things at Costco are), and especially at the time, it was a treat my family could afford to share with neighborhood friends or with our Girl Scout troop on trips and hikes that would excite without fail.
The chocolate muffins with chocolate chips were coveted, but were only allowed really as dessert (not as a snack) and the giant poppyseed muffins might have been my second favorite. The massive blueberry ones were good but not my favorite, the streusel-topped ones (totally forgetting the flavor now) were okay, and the banana nut were hard to find (you never knew what combination of flavors would be in stock the day you went for the bi-monthly shop) but fantastic. Those final ones, behemoths of banana flavor, studded with soft walnuts and topped with more chopped ones, with the lightest crumb, were what I thought of while making these mini gluten free banana nut loaves, trying to edge the flavor more and more towards those figments of food memory. I’ve nearly succeeded, but you’ll be the judge of that when you try the recipe. The key, I think, is the banana extract, which adds that bit of other-worldly banana flavor (apparently artificial banana flavor is based on a now-extinct variety of banana that succumbed to some vegetal disease). You can leave it out, but if you can find it, I highly recommend adding it.
I also love the mini loaves – I couldn’t find the massive muffin tins that Costco surely has hundreds of thousands of in their back kitchens, so these mini loaves are my substitute. They’re cute as a button and slicing tiny loaves of banana bread just tickles my love of all-things miniature. If you’re a banana fan, try our chocolate chip banana bundt, or these chocolate chip banana cupcakes with a dreamy banana buttercream (using powdered freeze dried bananas for flavor), or this homey banana snacking cake topped with more sliced bananas and melted butter (the perfect weekend treat), or even these banoffee pie cupcakes (banana cupcake, with a buttery graham cracker base, filled with caramel and topped with whipped cream and chocolate!).
Mini Gluten Free Banana Nut Loaves
Equipment
- Mini loaves pan
Ingredients
- 3/4 Cup melted salted butter
- 3/4 Cup white sugar
- 1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 4 large, overripe bananas
- 1/4 Cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp banana extract
- 1 1/2 Cups gluten free 1-1 flour mix with xanthan gum included (if your mix doesn't contain xanthan gum, add 3/4 tsp now)
- 1/2 Cup packed blanched almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 Cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit, and grease your 8-loaf mini loaf pan with cooking spray or butter, then set aside. In a large bowl, thoroughly mash your bananas with a masher or fork until creamy and smooth. Add in the melted butter, the sugars, and eggs and whisk until smooth. Add the sour cream, vanilla, and banana extract and whisk again until combined. Finally, add the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine. Add 1 cup of your chopped walnuts and stir.
- Spoon your batter into the loaf pans – they should be nearly full but not up to the edges. Then sprinkle the remaining chopped walnuts on top of each loaf. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean. Then serve!
Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your mini loaves!
Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber
2 Comments
Pingback:
Pingback: