Banana Buckwheat Muffins

I was asked by one of my subscribers if I could come up with a recipe for buckwheat. I’m not exactly renowned as a baker generally, although I did make all the breads in a catering company I worked for a few years back, so I have the basic knowledge of what to do. Shouldn’t be too hard to incorporate buckwheat into baking, right? Since we’re also featuring Allspice on Spice week and had requests for Nutmeg, this recipe covers all bases.

Here Stateside, buckwheat is primarily sold as processed flour or in pancake mixes. The Japanese use buckwheat flour to make Soba noodles as well as other products. In Europe, buckwheat groats (de-hulled seeds) called Kasha are cooked as a rice substitute. The groats are sometimes used in the U.S. as a breakfast cereal in place of oatmeal or porridge.Buckwheat is a suitable substitute for grains for people who are sensitive to wheat or gluten because it’s actually a fruit seed (and not a cereal grain) that is related to rhubarb and sorrel. The nutrients in buckwheat may also contribute to controlling blood sugar and lowering high cholesterol.

I’ve had this recipe in the bag for a while although there wasn’t any buckwheat in it so I figured I’d play with it and see what happened, or should I say, I gave the directions to the Missus, my favorite helper! Although it took three rounds for the end result, we finally got it right (and they are well good!)

RECIPE:

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup oats – toasted in dry saute pan for 5 mins, lightly browned

2 tbsp raw wheat germ

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup Xylitol (birch sugar)

1 1/2 bananas – mashed

2 large organic eggs – whisked

1 1/4 cups grated carrot

1/4 cup canola oil

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven 325F.

Combine flours, oats, wheat germ, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt in a food processor and mix until fine.

Add all remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl and using your hands, mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Then add in the blended dry ingredients and mix everything together until moist.

Spray muffin tin with canola oil spray and fill each muffin mold 3/4 full.

Pop in oven for 20-25 minutes.

To check if they’re baked all the way though, pierce a muffin in the center with a toothpick and if it comes out clean, you’re good to go.

Remove from oven and let cool in the tins.

To store: Once completely cool and at room temperature, store in an airtight container to retain freshness.

To Freeze: Put in airtight tupperware containers or ziploc bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Freeze in batches of 3 or 4 for convenience.

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible