Plantain Muffins, Sweet and Savory (even Olive-Rosemary flavored!)

These are another AIP staple for us, and we have sweet and savory versions. Sweet ones are great for breakfast or snacks, and savory ones are perfect for making little sandwiches for lunch.

The hardest part about making these muffins is consistency, because their success is based completely on the ripeness of your plantains, which can be very variable. If it's hot, the plantains that were perfect at 8am might be too ripe by 4pm when you finally get the time to bake them! Don't be afraid to try them through, because with practice, they become a fantastic addition to your AIP arsenal. (Note: this recipe has flaxseed in it, which is technically a reintroduction. You could try it subbing gelatin eggs for the flax if you aren't ready to try the seed.)

So, the plantains.

The plantains here in the front are just about what you're looking for, especially for savory muffins...maybe one more day for sweet. The yellow/brown ones in the back are too ripe.

If you use plantains that are too ripe, they will take FOREVER to bake, and will remain very wet inside, even after baking for over an hour. If this happens, don't throw them out! Freeze them, and then re-heat in the oven (toaster oven, whatever) until the outsides are crispy. They're quite delicious this way, but wouldn't be something we would necessarily serve to guests, know what I mean?? :D

Sweet Plantain Muffins

4 ripe-but-not-yet-browning plantains

3/4 cup golden flaxseed meal (regular is okay, but golden is better)

1.5 cups warm water

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp vanilla 

1.5 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup arrowroot

6 Tbsp coconut sugar

1/3 cup palm shortening, melted

Peel, chop, and then blend plantains in a food processor until smooth.

Mix flax, water, vinegar, and vanilla in a bowl and let sit about ten minutes, whipping with a fork randomly. The more you whip it, the more gelatinous it will become. It should look like egg-consistency when it's ready.

Add baking soda, salt, tapioca, and sugar to the plantains (we do all of this in the food processor) and mix.

Add melted shortening, pulse, add wet flax mixture. Blend for about 2 minutes.

We bake these in silicone muffins pans; originally we used cupcake papers in regular tins, but much of the muffin ended up sticking to the paper (even with oil), and this way we get 100% of the muffins to eat. 

Once we scoop all the batter, we add blueberries and/or raspberries and/or Enjoy Life chocolate chips (reintroduction!) to each individual cup. It just works better this way.

Oven should be about 375 degrees, and they take quite a while. We check at 35 minutes, and then every ten minutes, but they will likely bake for an hour or up to 90 minutes. I know that's a huge variable, but it all depends on the particular plantains you have that day. If, after, 75-90 minutes they still seem soft, take them out and let them cool completely, then freeze. They are actually really delicious once reheated to make the outside crispy.

Savory Plantain Muffins (optional Olive-Rosemary Muffins)

Same as above, EXCEPT:

• Plantains should be a day or two less ripe (greener) than described above
• OMIT the sugar and vanilla

If you want to get fancy, when you melt your shortening, add some rosemary to the oil and let it steep for about 15 minutes, and then remove the herb. Then you will have rosemary-flavored plantain muffins, and you can even add good olives to the muffins before baking and then you have fancy olive-rosemary plantain bread!

Singoda Chapati (Water Chestnut Flatbread)

Singoda flour isn't one you've probably heard of; it's made from water chestnuts and used in traditional Indian cooking. You can buy it online, but it's significantly cheaper to find an Indian market (like $4 a bag instead of $11). Brand does matter - I wish I had a list of all the brands we've encountered across the country, but suffice it to say that not all are equal - not all are even water chestnut! We've seen flour labeled singoda (or singhoda) which is really buckwheat! So try to make sure the ingredients specify water chestnut. We like this brand:

Simplest recipe ever, two ingredients: equal amounts flour and water. :)

It's what you do with them that makes the magic happen. If you just combine the flour and water, you'll get a mess that doesn't do much of anything. This flour likes to be cooked 2-3 times, so here's how you do it

Measure 1.5 cups of singoda flour into a glass bowl. Add a healthy pinch of salt if you want some extra flavor. Bring some water to a boil and while it's boiling hot, add 1.5 cups to the flour and stir quickly with a wooden spoon. It will start to gel a little, but not much will happen yet. 

Cover the glass dish and microwave on high for three minutes. When it comes out, it will be darker in color and bounce back when you press on it. Using a spatula, turn the whole disk over, and you will see that the center of the bottom is still gooey. (For non-microwavers, I feel you cringing. We didn't use a microwave in our house at all for about 15 years, but there was one in the RV when we bought it, and I'm actually glad, because as far I as I tell, there isn't another way to make this recipe work otherwise. I suppose you could try baking it slowly, but I haven't tried that method.)

 

Back in the microwave for about a minute and a half, and now the whole disk will be cooked through. It has magically turned into a dough! We used to then knead the disk into a log before cutting into equal portions, but now our time-saving method is this: we just turn out the disk onto the cutting board and cut into equal portions, and then roll them into balls, ready for the tortilla press.

Since we didn't knead the dough, the outside of the circle will likely be more cooked than the center, so when you press your dough, there might be one section that is denser/more clumpy, like this:

Hard to see because the lighting in the RV was terrible by this time, but the 10-11:00 portion of this tortilla is not as soft or as uniform as the rest. What I do is fold the tortilla up with the overly-cooked portion in the center of the pillow, and re-press, basically letting the tortilla press do the kneading work for me. The resulting chapati should be perfect!

This dough will only perform for you while it's warm, so work quickly (one reason we stopped the kneading thing. . .this goes faster). If it cools down too much to press, just pop your pieces in the microwave for 20 seconds or so and try again. Put them on a plate as you go - the dough isn't sticky by this time, so you don't even need parchment or plastic in between layers.

Now you'll heat an iron skillet, rub a little oil (avocado, olive, or bacon fat, preferably) on the surface, and cook the chapatis on both sides. As they cook, they'll change color again, becoming a little lighter in appearance with golden brown spots, so you can see when they're finished.

Almost done! You could eat them like this, but they are SIGNIFICANTLY improved if you cook them directly on the fire of your stove. Place them directly on the flame and let them get a bit of char. These are a great bread substitute, and especially delicious with ghee (a reintroduction if you are strict AIP) and salt.

It might seem like a lot of steps here with all the photos, but it's pretty fast, actually. We make a double batch and keep them in the fridge before the charring step, then just throw on the flame to heat up for meals. If you're traveling, char them first, then store in a plastic bag on your dash and they'll be warm for lunch. Great as a "wrap" substitute, with lunchmeat and fixin's, although mine aren't big enough to actually wrap into rolls. . .more of a hearty sandwich taco. :)

Cassava Flour Tortillas

We make these a few times a week to use as a bread replacement for lunches and dinners. Ordering cassava flour from Amazon has been more convenient for us than trying to find frozen grated cassava for the other type of tortillas we like. (For quite a while, we've only been able to find the grated cassava that has preservatives added, which we are unwilling to eat, and it's also faster and more convenient than boiling fresh yuca root to make the whole thing from scratch-scratch.)

I was going to type out our recipe, because I couldn't remember where we got it from, but I found it! We basically use this recipe: http://theurbanposer.com/cassava-flour-tortillas/

 

1 1/2 cups Cassava Flour

6 tablespoons arrowroot flour

2 tablespoons ground golden flax seed

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons melted fat(s) of choice (palm shortening, lard, ghee, coconut oil)

3/4 cup (possibly a little more) lukewarm water

Go see the post, because she's got some great info about cassava flour, although I don't agree that it is a good substitute for a lot of baking. Apparently some people are subbing it 1:1 for wheat flour, but we've had terrible results with most of our experiments. We do like it for these tortillas, and we use it for cookies, but breads and cakes are a no-go. You might need more water than she calls for, but it depends on humidity, etc. We often use half palm shortening and half coconut oil, instead of just one fat. We also sprinkle a small amount of fine sea salt on top when we first add them to the pan to cook, just for yum. :)

Remember if you are still strict AIP, flax seeds are a reintroduction. We do like the golden flax better than regular for this recipe, and we always use a tortilla press...rolling by hand would make a 3x/week chore unnecessarily loooong. The press makes everything come out in a uniform way and when you use parchment to avoid sticking, it comes together really fast. Most bloggers sharing cassava flour recipes seem to be pushing Otto's brand, but we use Anthony's, which is significantly less expensive.

We make a double batch (about 40 tortillas) and store in the fridge in a large plastic bag; they heat up great in a toaster oven or iron skillet. Great to pack for lunch on travel days! (Pro tip: put your tortillas, muffins, or breads on the dashboard while you drive and they'll be warm and extra delicious whenever you want them!)