Sweet Potato Corn Muffins

Things didn't go exactly as planned this week. Husband was sick and not in the mood for hearty eating. I had a few sweet potatoes left that I was planning on making oven fries with, but instead I figured I'd try to make something less perishable from them. Never mind all the baking stuff I already have around the house. I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Cornbread and was off to the races.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 sweet potatoes or 1 (16 ounce) can sweet potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil (I used canola)

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately; pour into 12 muffin cups. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Notes:
-Given my repeated failures baking any kind of cornbread with GF flour, I used regular old wheat baking flour just like the recipe says.
-I baked three sweet potatoes at 375 degrees for 45 minutes and probably should have kept them in there for an hour.
-I added a half teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
-I used light brown sugar, not regular sugar, and probably used closer to 3/4 a cup than a half.

The result was a little nutty, a little sweet, perfect for breakfast or a dinner side. I'll definitely make these again someday.

Blueberry Banana Ginger Breakfast Bread

So, what to do with all my leftovers?

After some intrepid Googling, I found this recipe for Blueberry-Banana Muffins with ginger.

I adapted it to work with the ingredients I had on hand, and my laziness. Namely, substituting rice flour for whole wheat flour, fresh ginger for dried, adding more sugar, and using whole flaxseed instead of ground because I didn't feel like grinding.

This is NOT a low-FODMAP food, due to all that wheat flour and who knows what else. But it was delicious. In fact, it only made for 4 servings. Cost-wise it's a disaster on its own, but given I'd already bought all these ingredients for other purposes at some point, it worked out well.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup all-purpose unbleached wheat flour

½ cup brown rice flour

¼ cup whole flaxseed

1½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp candied (crystallized) ginger, very finely diced

1 egg

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

1 tsp fresh mashed ginger

¼ cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1½ cups ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 large)

1 carton fresh blueberries

Instructions:

1. Combine dry ingredients (oats, flours, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, salt, candied ginger) and set aside. 

2. In a new bowl, beat sugars, egg, oil, and vanilla extract; add ginger and banana and mix well. 

3. Mix together with dry ingredients. Fold in blueberries. 

4. Pour mixture into a well-greased bread loaf pan. 

5. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes or so. 

It was very, very moist, and could have been cooked a little longer. And perhaps taken fewer blueberries. But it was good! Success! 

Low FODMAP Chocolate Banana Zucchini Bread

Inspired by this recipe from Rachel Ray.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (about 1 1/2 small)
1 overripe banana
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I used quinoa flour)
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
(Optional: add walnuts, chocolate chips, etc)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray with non-stick cooking spray and flour an 8″ x 4″ x 2 1/2″  loaf pan and set aside. Use a paper towel to squeeze the water out of the shredded zucchini. Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add the sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Mix to combine. Stir in the zucchini and mashed banana, then fold in the chocolate chips or walnuts if you're adding them. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes (probably closer to 70) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and serve. 

This was a little crumbly, and not very sweet, but still pretty good. I like that it's healthy. Should have been cooked a little more, and maybe brown sugar is the way to go (?)