Despite the onset of autumn, everywhere I look I’m still seeing green. My tomato plants are producing more right now than they did all summer long.
My fig tree finally started fruiting last month, and my kitchen garden has turned into a forest.
It’s not entirely unusual; but at the same time, my plants are producing longer and larger yields than in years past. If I think about it too long, it’s a little unnerving. I have row covers and cloches ready for the eventual cold snap. I’m trying to convince all of our outdoor fauna that it will be getting colder.
For now, we’re just enjoying the greenness of everything.
I wonder if the same thing is happening elsewhere. Specifically, wherever avocado harvests are taking place. They’ve been on sale for the past six weeks or so, and the novelty of being able to buy affordable (!) organic avocados has yet to wear off. Which means I’m buying them twice a week on my scheduled market runs. In an effort to justify buying those knobbly, brown speckled beauties in such quantity, I decided to incorporate them into my family’s favorite muffin recipe.
Avocado Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Dry ingredients:
3/4 cup sorghum or brown rice flour
1/2 cup quinoa or millet flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grained sea salt
Slurry:
2 tablespoons chia or flax seeds, ground to a powder (measure before grinding)
3 tablespoons boiling water
Wet ingredients:
2 medium-sized, ripe bananas
1 medium or large ripe avocado
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup softened coconut oil, or sunflower or olive oil (plus extra if using to coat pan)
Very important final ingredient:
1 small dark chocolate bar (1.5-1.75 oz), coarsely chopped
Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C. Prepare muffin tray(s) with liners or a light coating of oil.
In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, mash up wet ingredients: bananas, avocado (a potato masher + the elbow grease of a small child get the job done best), syrup, and oil.
Put the ground chia or flax seeds into a small bowl, add the boiling water, and whisk vigorously. Your slurry will thicken instantly. Add the slurry to the wet ingredients and stir to combine thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until all flour is absorbed. Take a taste! That’s right, go on now. No fear of salmonella happening on my watch. Sweeten a bit more if you’d like (we all have our own preferences). And most importantly – fold in the chocolate.
Portion the batter into muffin tray(s) 3/4 of the way full, and bake: 25 minutes for regular sized / 15 minutes for minis, or until the tops are starting to brown.
If you don’t have an avocado, use two more small or medium bananas and your muffins will look like this:
Yield: 15 regular or 40 mini muffins
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