Everything Free Banana Muffins

As I mentioned here, the husband and I are on a food panel for the local newspaper. In the most recent meeting, we met a lovely lady, Jodye, that had just published a cookbook called Let's Bake. The book is for baking with food allergies. Judy's children have life threatening food allergies, so she wanted to create recipes that would allow them to enjoy food as well. On her website she lists some great information about food allergies, along with several recipes.

One thing that is great about these recipes is that if you don't have to worry about a particular allergy, then you can substitute "normal" ingredients instead (i.e. regular all-purpose flour, eggs, etc.). As a matter of fact, the recipe I've posted below is not the original recipe, but a slight variation. You can find the original recipe here if you're interested.

Banana Muffins (12 servings at 2 points a piece)

Ingredients:

3 bananas mashed (1 cup)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup applesauce
3/4 cup Splenda
1/2 cup egg beaters
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp artificial butter flavor (optional)
1/4 cup orange juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In separate bowl, combine the orange juice, vanilla, and optional butter flavor. Cream the applesauce and sugar together using a mixer.

With the mixer running on medium low, add the egg beaters and mix until combined. Add the mashed banana and mix. Add the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in three additions, alternating between the two. Scrape down the bowl as needed and mix well between additions.

Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup batter using a 1/4 measuring cup or an ice cream scoop. Bake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes. Let the muffins sit in the tin for a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool.

If you would like, you can add 1 cup of chocolate chips to the batter, but they will add 2 more points to the muffins.

These muffins were excellent! I loved the banana flavor. The muffins were very moist, but not too much so. And it's great that with just a few alterations you can have a recipe that would allow someone with food allergies to enjoy these delicious banana muffins.

*CORRECTION: I butchered poor Jodye's name. It's fixed now :)