Muffin Bread

Recipe: banana bread, or muffins, or whatever you want (gluten-free, dairy-free).

Ingredients

• 1½–2 c. puréed fruit or applesauce

• ⅓ c. brown sugar

• ⅓ c. oil

• 2 eggs

• 1 tbsp. muffin powder¹ or:

  • 1 tsp. cinnamon

  • 1 tsp. baking soda

  • 1 tsp. baking powder

  • ½ tsp. salt

• 3–3½ c. oats

• (1–1½ c. fruit bits)

Instructions

1. In a blender, purée soft fruit, like bananas or tinned peaches or pineapple, or even cooked carrots.

2. Add sugar, oil, eggs, and muffin powder, and blend.

3. Add oats and blend, one cup at a time if your blender isn’t very powerful.

4. If desired, stir in fruit bits, like fresh or dried berries or chopped fruit; you can also try chocolate chips, seeds, or nuts.

5. Pour into a muffin tin, or 2–3 loaf tins, or a smallish cake tin, greased or lined with baking-paper.

6. Bake at 190°C (375°F) until a knife or skewer comes out with soft crumbs rather than batter: about 15–18 min. for muffins, 25–35 min. for loaves or a shallow cake, or 30–40 min. for a deep cake.

Variations

• Banana bread: puréed banana + optional raisins

• Pumpkin spice bread: puréed cooked carrots + powdered ginger, cloves, and nutmeg to taste

• Sweet blueberry muffins: puréed tinned peaches + fresh or frozen blueberries

• Apple bread: applesauce + diced fresh apple

• Emma’s favourite: puréed tinned pineapple + dried cranberries

Alternate Instructions

• Tiny blender: Blend 2 c. oats to a coarse powder and set aside. Purée fruit. Mix all ingredients (including both the powdered oats and the other 1–1½ c. oats) in a large bowl.

• No blender: Mash very soft fruit, like bananas, with a potato-masher or a fork, or use applesauce instead. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, using small or ‘baby’ oats (not whole or ‘old-fashioned’ oats). You may need a slightly higher fruit-to-oat ratio, and the texture may be somewhat coarser, than if you use a blender.

1. To save time, I make muffin powder for several batches, with two parts each of cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder, and one part of salt.