Gluten Free Sunbutter and Banana Muffins Recipe
I don’t actually understand the concept of “kid’s food.” When my children were young I just made food and they ate it. So when I get emails saying “I need gluten-free kid’s food recipes” I have to really think about what that means.
I guess I was fortunate to have children that were not picky eaters. Either that or my children have high survival instincts and realized early on that if they didn’t eat the food I prepared, they would starve. But in my defense, I never forced my children to eat anything they didn’t like; I just exposed them to a wide variety of foods and because of that they developed pretty sophisticated palates.
I have now come to realize how very lucky I was. My nephew is an extremely picky eater and unfortunately the only things he will willingly choose to eat, are bread and sweets. So my poor sister has to constantly figure out ways to get some nutrition into him.
Someone once told me that you are never given more to bear than you can carry and this is probably true; my sister is patient, persistent, and persevering and I on the other hand, am not. At least I wasn’t with my kids, but then I think we are supposed to be indulgent with our nieces and nephews. Which brings me to the muffins.
On top of being a picky eater, my nephew Kelton also has a nasty peanut allergy, so I created these Gluten Free Sunbutter and Banana Muffins for him. They are sweet, without much added sugar; bready, without gluten; moist, without dairy and are a good source of protein, vitamins and fiber thanks to the addition of Sunbutter – a yummy, peanut-free seed butter made from roasted sunflower seeds.
As a little note when baking with Sunbutter, due to the chlorophyll in the sunflower seeds, baked goods can turn a little greenish unless you add in some lemon juice. The color does not affect the taste but it is certainly nicer to have golden brown muffins than greenish ones, unless it is St. Patrick’s Day.
This is my concession to the idea of “kid’s food.” I think I did a good job of making a recipe that is appealing to the kid palate without being dumbed-down. More importantly, so does Kelton.
So, do you make “kid’s food” in your home? If so, what? I’d love to hear.
Gluten Free Sunbutter and Banana Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 1½ cups gluten-free flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 6 tablespoons grapeseed (or other neutral tasting) oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 1 cup creamy Sunbutter
- 1 heaping cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper or spray well with gluten-free non-stick cooking spray.
- In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another large mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla, lemon juice and Sunbutter until well combined and smooth. Add the flour mixture and whisk to combine. Stir in the bananas. Divide the mixture between the prepared muffin cups and bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until risen and golden brown. Let cool in the pan and serve warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition
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Thats the way I grew up too! Whether it was stew, eclairs or hot apple juice… if the adults had it we had it and now so we all eat according to each others food allergieswhen we’re together becasue its easier that way. If I’m ever so lucky to have children I plan to do the same with them – If they’ll agree to it! :)
But you’re muffins sound pretty adult friendly too! Love to try them out!
Thanks and I am sure WHEN you are lucky enough to have children they will eat the same as you!
There are “kid foods” in my house in the sense that the kiddo doesn’t have to eat dairy and gluten-free like I do. So, he sometimes gets a box of mac and cheese, or a take-out pizza. But, in general, I make whatever I make for dinner, and he eats it or eats nothing. I don’t cater to his pickiness. Consequently, he’s not all that picky and will eat pretty much anything and even requests things like Indian food or Thai food. I do take his likes and dislikes into consideration. (He hates the texture of zukes, so when he eats that, I try to go the pureed route – like a soup.) But, there aren’t many healthy things I’ve eliminated simply because he doesn’t like them. I can usually come up with some way to incorporate them into a dish so that he’ll at least tolerate them.
I think it is perfectly ok to cater to kids likes and dislikes, after all there is food that I don’t like and would hate to be forced to eat it. But I really wanted my kids to learn to try new things. I asked them to please take 3 bites before decideing they didn’t like something. After that, if they didn’t like it, ok. What I can not understand is making different dinners for the kids and parents.
My good friend does this – makes 2 dinners each night – one for adults, one for the kids. On top of being more expensive and time consuming, it has given her children the mindset that adult food is “yucky”. Hard to stand on the sidelines and just let people do what they do sometimes. :/
My kid is grown up, but he always ate everything with us. I had help though in introducing him to a wide variety of foods as his grandparents and his third set of grandparents (his older babysitter and her husband) all ate tons of “adult” foods like cabbage, greens, and such. What I’d consider kid foods were chicken nuggets (which I made from scratch) and pizza (not made from scratch until I went gf), but we ate those, too. I think traveling a lot also ensured that he was exposed to and ate very different, non-picky foods like curried goat, shark, and such. BTW, I think kid foods are largely a result of marketing. The kids of my friends who don’t own a tv think kid food is everything and never turn their noses up at any foods, even kimchi, sauerkraut, and the like. These muffins look wonderful for anyone though, Carol–picky or not! Great tip on the lemon juice–thanks. :-)
xo,
Shirley
I couldn’t agree with you more on the marketing! Those packages for kids food just makes me crazy, the kids think they want what’s inside because of the cool images on the packages. Funny thing is that the only thing my oldest would not eat growning up was what would normally be considered a “kid food” – peanut butter.
No way!!!! Once they’re a couple of years old, I fed my kiddies exactly the same food as the grownups. The only concession I made was to tone down curry or chilli heat a touch. We’ve never had a problem, after all, it’s that food or nothing! :)
Your comment reminded me of the fact that I gave my oldest boy chips and salas before he even had teeth. Maybe that was going too far but he survived :)
These look absolutely PHENOMENAL!! I’m a “kid” still and I’d say these are right up my alley for deliciousness. :) I love anything sunbutter and absolutely adore that you have so many recipes using it! Thanks for another great one, I can’t wait to let you know how these turn out!
Thanks Olivia. My husband is what I would call a “kid” too – he has the palate of an 8 year old :)
Ooh, these look yummy! I don’t have kids, but as a teacher I see the most disgusting kid food in the cafeteria. I wish all of my students had wonderful cooks like you all!
Oh I can only imagine! My kids used to have to take their lunch to school and would sometimes come home saying they wish they could have lunchables like some of the other kids. Seriously? Anyway they soon got over it :)
Carol, do you know how much 1 cup of your flour mix weighs? I’d love to substitute with some higher-protein GF flours. Thanks!
Hi Michelle. 1 cup of my flour weighs 4.65 ounces. I have made these before using superfine brown rice flour and tapioca startch. I used 75 percent brown rice flour and the rest starch – no xanthan cum. I think you could play around with this in a number of ways. Let me know what you come up with!
I love this recipe, Carol! I am definitely going to be making these!
These are gorgeous looking muffins Carol and you’ve totally inspired me :) I love a peanut butter and banana sandwich. I think this is the perfect combo! Overall my kids are pretty good. I usually have them try one bite, but I read your above comment and I think it’s time to step it up to three! Tonight we had bean dip, homemade nachos, and guacamole. The kids had nachos and cheese and guacamole. They tried the bean dip and I was super happy with that! I think if we keep trying, it will happen! Thanks for the inspiration, as a mom and a baker :)
Absolutely no “kids food” here. Tastes develop so early and I really want to steer him (and future children) in the right direction nutritionally. He’s not even a year old yet, and we are doing baby led weaning, so he eats chicken, olives, roast beef, brown rice… a few days ago he ate your brined pork chops and spicy pear chutney and loved it. This week, African Stew is on the menu. I’m really grateful he’s already developing a preference for good, real food.
By the way… totally making these!
These are very cute, and look delicious! I think “kid food” is a funny concept. My mom was a lot like you, and I love most foods because of it :)
In my extended family, kid’s food is restricted to not putting sauces on things and substituting different vegetables upon occasion (Cousin #1 gets broccoli instead of cauliflower, cousin #2 gets carrots instead of peppers, and I got raw veg instead of lettuce). Otherwise, there was the concession of mac & cheese for the vegetarians and kids could choose that over meat if they wanted.
Nice idea– I just bought some sunflower seed butter and will have to try it once I finish off my current stash of GF muffins.
Oh, and I do want to throw in the thought that it’s okay for kids to have preferences. I, for example, would eat all the carrots, broccoli, and brussels sprouts you could feed me but I’d still rather not eat tomatoes and eggplant. A “you must eat a variety of real food” rule suffices; it need not be “you must eat everything.”
It is all about marketing. How absurd are the toddler meals??
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Do you think I could replace 1 cup sunbutter with 1/2 cup sunbutter and 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce?
Sounds delicious! cant wait to bake these =] How Can i make them with almond or coconut flour? Those are the only flours that i can have, that the local stores carry, & that dont need to be mixed with reg flour.
I am sure you can – you may need to adjust the amount of lour a little, start with less and work up. If you want to keep them nut free use the coconut, if it is not an issue the almond flour wouls taste great.
Carol, I am baking these tomorrow for my 6 month old daughter and of course me and my husband! Hers have no sunbutter and less sugar! What we eat she eats!! :-)
As a mother who raised two kids I can say it is best to start early with the way you want to raise your children and them eating what you eat will make your life so much easier!
Do you know if this recipe will work with egg substitute?
Kim I have not tried it but I can think of no reason why it would not work. Good luck and report back to me if you do try. Thanks!
It worked great with egg substitute… very enjoyable. I love muffins but when I was diagnosed with food allergies… I couldn’t eat them anymore… this is perfect!! Thank you SO much!!
Yay Kim – so glad to know. Thanks for telling me. What type of egg sub did you use?
Children need to be educated about food. They watch your reaction, hear your comments about the food and will learn(from you) to like or dislike something. Teach them to eat nutriciously dense food to keep them happy and healthy as they grow.
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Thanks for this great recipe! I tried it with almond butter since I don’t have sun butter, but found the muffins tend to dry out really quickly. I added chocolate chips since I thought that might help to keep things moist, but no luck! Any ideas?
Thank you!
Hi, Daniella! Did you use a creamy almond butter? The creamy variety usually works best, rather than the natural kind, which tends to bake drier.
I just made these today with natural peanut butter because that was what I had. They turned out great!
Thank you for this recipe.