Surprise Corn Muffins

So yesterday, I decided that I wanted to find some healthy on-the-go snacks. My mind was filled with granola bars and breakfast bars and muffins and scones and granola and things without a name. As I've been enjoying converting recipes from gluten-filled to gluten free, I decided to just look for recipes in general. And, I found these as well as tons of others.

So... What are these surprise muffins? Well, they are cornmeal muffins and they've got a secret on the inside. Yup. They're filled with extra goodness. A surprise extra goodness. Any guesses?

Its pretty simple. Banana and peanut butter. Just a little slice of banana under a pat of peanut butter, hiding anonymously under the muffin top. Its our little secret... until they take a bite =D.

I am pleased to say that these went over really well with my family. My dad especially liked them, from their cornmeal to the little surprise. My mom said that they didn't even taste gluten free, and my brother said "good". They were moist but not wet, and didn't crumble whatsoever. Isn't that wonderful? So, here's the recipe...

Surprise Muffins

based on this recipe from Allrecipes - Makes 12 Muffins.

Ingredients

3/4 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup millet flour

1/4 cup corn flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1/4 cup sorghum flour

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup honey

2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs (at room temperature)
2/3 cup buttermilk

1 large ripe banana, cut into slices *see note

1/2 cup (or so) peanut butter

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 12-muffin muffin tin (or use paper liners).

2. Combine cornmeal, flours, starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, honey and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. The mixture should become lighter in colour. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next.

4. Pour the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated (and no lumps of flour remain).

5. Fill each muffin cup about 1/3 full. Place a banana slice into the batter in each cup and top with 1/2 tsp of peanut butter, pressing down slightly to cover the banana. Continue to fill each muffin cup with batter until the cup is 2/3 full.

6. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in muffin tin for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Note: My slices were about 5 mm, but the original recipe says 1 inch, so whatever works for you.

These were delightful, they slid right out of the tin, weren't crumbly, and will be my entry into the next Slightly Indulgent Mondays, because thats what they are =D. On that note - Next week, I'm going to be Amy's featured cook! She chose my memory buns as her favourite entry! How awesome is that?

With all of that said, I hope you are all have (or are having) an awesome first week of school, or just of September. This will be a good year, I can feel it.

Have a great day,

xoxo

Lauren