Recipes: Turmeric, Banana & Blood Orange Muffins
It was a beautiful sunny Saturday, I had all the windows wide open in the house, music playing loud and the sweet promise of spring elevated my spirits. Then, just like that, I woke up to inches of snow and ice the next morning and dreams of sundresses and ripe fruit sunk back into the quiet folds of my heart. I have never been a cold weather girl and never will be.
So into the kitchen I went, baking the gloom away with these bright sunshine-infused muffins, because doesn’t a good baked good solve everything? I based this recipe off of Green Kitchen Stories gorgeous turmeric blueberry muffins, but lacking the ripe summer berries I turned to winter blood oranges instead. They turned out to be an amazing compliment to the bananas. It adds the perfect amount of sweet citrus tartness to compliment the banana nut experience, and the turmeric is just there to stain your fingers a tad golden for that reminder that sunnier days are ahead of us. I’m feeling grateful for March and the promise of warm days, long walks outside and fresh, local produce is just around the corner. Until then, baked goods…
TURMERIC, BANANA & BLOOD ORANGE MUFFINS
Dry Ingredients
2 ½ cup raw walnuts
3 ½ cups oat flour
4 tbsp arrowroot
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp quality mineral salt
Wet ingredients
3/4 cup olive oil
4 ripe bananas, mashed
8 dates, finely chopped
¼ cup maple syrup or date syrup
½ cup of flax meal + ½ cup water, whisked together
2 blood oranges, juiced & zested
2 tbsp hot water
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or grease the pan with oil or butter. Pulse the walnuts in a food processor to break down into a coarse flour. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and combine the remaining dry ingredients. Then, mix in the wet ingredients, using a spatula to gently fold the mixture together. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin pan. Place a slice of banana or blood orange on top of each muffin with a sprinkling of cinnamon. Bake for about 18-2o minutes, or until the center is lightly cooked but still soft. Enjoy warm!
Makes 16-18 muffins
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[…] Recipe adapted from: Vidya Cleanse […]
I made these this morning and they were amazing! I didn’t have the arrowroot powder but I made them anyways and they were still so good! I will be making these again for sure. I love your recipes and your blog and I also look forward to meeting you at the Spiritweavers Gathering in June! Kat
Arrowroot tends work like cornstarch, helping bind and thicken the consistency. But truthfully, I find these dense enough they work just fine without that addition! Glad they were a hit 🙂
PS – come give me a squeeze at Spirit Weavers! I can’t believe it’s just right around the corner <3
Hi
I was wondering if I can swap walnut meal with Almond meal? Do you think it will be fine?
Thanks
Akshaya
Hi there, the ground walnuts do provide a different texture in the muffins than a traditional fine ground dried almond meal, like the kind you buy in the store pre-ground. Instead, you can try soaking whole almonds overnight before pulsing them into a coarse flour as an even swap from the whole walnuts, but you can also omit the nuts entirely and increase the oat flour as another alternative. Give it a try and let me know how it goes! I’m curious myself what the almonds would be like instead of the walnuts!
Do you know the glycemic index for these muffins?
This looks and sounds delicious but I can’t have grains. Could this be done without the oat flour? What could I substitute instead?
Great question. I might try using a blend of almond flour and coconut flour instead. Coconut flour tends to be very drying and absorbent, so I would try 2.5 cups of almond flour to 1 cup coconut flour in a variation. But do be afraid to play around with the ratios and see what works for you!
Hi Claire, lovely recipes! I suppose I could also just buy already grounded walnuts, right? Looking forward of making these and some other recipes of yours! Lovely greetings from Vata me in Zürich, Snjezana