A few months ago, I read about Gwyneth Paltrow’s new book ‘It’s All Good’ in the Sunday paper. ‘Delicious easy recipes that will make you look good and feel great’… yes please! The book grew from a tricky patch in Gwyneth’s life (look at me talking about her, like we’re friends), but her story was something I could relate to. Last year I took our family down the whole foods path, and let me tell you, we are all the better for it.
I like to keep seriously sugary treats for just that, a treat. When I bake for a special occasion, whoa, I don’t hold back! But for everyday, I try and sneak in as much nutrition as I can. Occasionally we still succumb to an emergency muffin whilst out and about, but I much prefer to make snacks of my own. This allows me use less refined sugars (to get all of the nutrition from them you can) and add in some sneaky nutrients! So here are some muffins, inspired by Gwyneth’s, which use better sugars and include a superfood! High five to me!
Banana, date and cacao nib muffins inspired by Banana-Date Muffins in It’s All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Turshen
- 2 bananas, roughly smashed
- 250g spelt flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 30g cacao nibs
- 40g dark chocolate chips
- 100g dates, chopped into small pieces
- 100ml rice syrup
- 30ml maple syrup
- 150ml milk
- 120ml oil of your choice (I used grapeseed, but I think coconut oil would be an awesome substitute)
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with papers.
Whisk together the flour and the baking powder. Add cacao nibs and chocolate chips into the flour mixture and stir to combine.
In a separate bowl, combine the rice syrup, maple syrup, milk, oil and smashed bananas (a few chunks are just fine). Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture, then add the dates (try to separate them from each other, they are super sticky!) and mix until combined.
The mixture will look and feel really runny. Don’t stress! They will puff up beautifully in the oven and taste totally delish. Divide the mixture among the muffin cups and get ready to put your feet up. Pretty simple, huh? Bake them in the 200 degree C oven for 18 mins or until beautiful and golden and your house smells like an amazing banana wonderland.
Then tuck into them, as fast as you can!
sweetpeadarlingheart 