Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes & Never Fail Chocolate Icing

May 10, 2013 Heidi Pyper

Last week I wrote about the ugliness of gluten free baking. I was only half kidding. Things can get pretty ugly, just take a look at my photo below. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You just need some tools. There are GF baking dishes that are shallow (read whatever you’re baking isn’t rising) and if you could decorate a cake before you went gluten free, you can now. If, on the other hand, you couldn’t decorate a cake before, you still can’t, but you had better learn. Dusting the top with a little icing sugar isn’t going to cut it. I feel fairly strongly about this, you are going to need an icing bag, a real one, not a baggie with a plastic tip but a vinyl, professional grade icing bag with metal tips. You’re also going to need a blow torch, but that’s another post.

My earliest efforts at gf baking involved all purpose gf flour and xanathan, but I quickly abandoned that route. I found the results dry and not particularly wheat like. I’m also not too sure about xanathan and the starches in the all purpose blends. So now, I’m working on a few great desserts that either avoid flour all together or rely on alternative flours. Today, as promised, my school bake sale banana chocolate chip cupcake that won’t have your child hiding in shame. I use coconut flour, the results are insanely moist cupcakes and honestly, no one will notice that they are gluten free. Remember my rule – delicious first, gluten free second!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
4 ripe bananas (the riper the sweeter)
4 eggs
¼ cup coconut oil
1 TBSP vanilla
2 TBSP maple syrup
¾ cup – 1 cup coconut flour (*I suggest 3/4 cup to a full cup of coconut flour because bananas come in different sizes. I tend to use less flour and the results are very moist cupcakes)
2 TBSP chia
1 TBSP cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
¼ cup chocolate chips or walnuts or both
For the icing:
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/3 cups of sweetened condensed milk
1 TBSP water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Melt coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla over low heat in a sauce pan.

In a bowl, whisk eggs

In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients

Stir the wet and the dry ingredients together until just combined.

Line cupcake tin with paper cups

Scoop into paper cups

Bake for 20 minutes

Let cool

For the icing:

Chop chocolate into pieces and melt in a double boiler (If you don’t have a double boiler, don’t worry. A pot and a metal bowl will do. Boil water in a pot and place a larger bowl over top – voila a double boiler)

Add condensed milk stirring constantly (about 5 minutes)

Add water and extract

Let the icing cool and then ice the cupcakes.

Sweet Potato Chronicles

*Unlike baking with wheat, these cupcakes won’t noticeably rise. Place enough batter to fill the cup and smooth out the batter with a spoon, as seen on the right. Whatever shape you put them into the oven is the shape you will see when you remove them from the oven. If you aren’t icing them, this is especially important. As seen in the image above.

You can stop right here and show up with chocolate chip banana cupcakes, but in order to be a true hero, you need to decorate these suckers. Pretty cupcake cups help too.

Icing sugar contains gluten, which is a total bummer. No more buttercream icing. Sob. So how do you make icing without icing sugar? Fear not, I have a solution. I’m not entirely sure if it is healthy, but we’re talking about icing here, not granola. The recipe comes from my Nana who planned dessert before her dinner. In fact, dinner was an annoyance in the way of her dessert. In her later years I recall finding her on the veranda of her cottage with a half a pecan pie and a cup of tea beside her, which I’m pretty sure was her dinner. She was a rare breed, sugar didn’t seem to do her any harm, apparently neither did the Rye or the cigarettes. When she died, (at 90) I compiled all of her recipes from her books, notes and recipe cards. I especially love the index cards, many are dated and have hand written notes in the margins – Mother Matheson Pastry 1914, or Jo’s aspic and today’s little gem: Never Fail Chocolate Icing. Well, stop right there. Never fail? Bring. It. On.

The key to pretty decorating is an icing bag; a knife just doesn’t cut it. I bought my icing bag for $12.99 at Bulk Barn. You’ll have to pick a tip, which can be quite daunting, but someone will be able to help you.