Healthy Tasty Chowcleaner recipes, reviews and food chatter

I found this delicious recipe on Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog: goop.com.  I enjoy reading the food section of her blog because she always has one healthy meal and a dessert/sweet option.  (I know, I tend to stick to the sweets but they’re more fun to talk about)  She has access to anything and since she cares about her health she seems to find those health-conscious talented foodies and I’m so happy that she shares her findings!  I tweaked it a little since I’m a much lazier cook… I hate sifting (however, if you’re not sifting, you may be using too much flour…or basically, a different recipe alltogether) and making wells and using multiple bowls and stuff so here’s my version:

Ingredients:

• 2 large ripe bananas
• 1/2 c maple syrup
• 1/4 cup brown rice syrup (just use honey or agave nectar if you don’t have it)
• 5 Tablespoons grapeseed oil (or canola or sunflower)
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup whole spelt flour  (you can also use just plain wheat flour)
• 1/2 cup barley flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup walnuts, roasted then chopped (tip: roast more in case you burn a few it seems to always happen in my hot oven and then if none burn, you have extras to put in the muffins or a tasty treat to snack on while baking)
• 1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 and roast the walnuts for around 7 minutes, then chop
2. Mash bananas and then mix in the other liquid ingredients.
3. Mix flours, baking soda and salt and add to liquid ingredients (I usually put the liquid ingredients in a big bowl, and mix the dry on top of the liquid in the same bowl, I hate doing dishes, it works every time though!!!) 
4. Fold in walnuts and raisins.  Don’t over-mix or it’ll be tough.  I used a spatula for mixing everything.
5. Spray the muffin tin with oil or line with cups.  Use an ice cream scoop to distribute evenly - I do this with every muffin/cupcake that I make.  It’s so much easier!
6. Bake about 25 minutes, cool for a few minutes, and then transfer to a cooking rack.

These made a dense yet fluffy moist batch of muffins with a rich banana flavor.  Enjoy!