Can I Make The Chocolate Banana Muffins Gluten Free?

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate And Banana Muffins (from KITCHEN) are a great way to use up bananas that have become over-ripe. The addition of banana also means that the muffins keep better than many regular muffins. In our experience, simply switching plain (all-purpose) flour for a plain gluten-free flour (or all-purpose gluten-free baking blend) gives the muffins a slightly pasty texture. We prefer to use a mixture of gluten-free flour and ground almonds (almond meal or almond flour).

We would instead suggest baking Nigella's Gluten-Free Banana Bread as muffins. This recipe is likely to make 10-12 muffins if you fill each muffin case 1/2-2/3 full with batter. You could try using a combination of 150g rice flour and 25g cocoa powder to make the muffins more chocolatey and omit the chopped walnuts. You can omit the chocolate chunks or use regular chocolate chips as an alternative. As the muffins are gluten-free, they will not rise in a peak in the same way as the regular Chocolate Banana Muffins, but are likely to have flatter tops. We also suspect that it would be better to bake the gluten-free version at 180c/160c fan/350F for around 20 minutes, or until the muffins feel firm on top and a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few damp crumbs attached (this might be a bit tricky due to the melted chocolate chips). However, please note that as we have not tried the Gluten-Free Banana Bread in this way ourselves, we are unable to guarantee the results.