Simply tender and moist Gluten free Strawberry Banana Muffin filled with homemade Strawberry Jam and topped with crunchy crumble toppings.

Our gluten free baking continues with another variation of my simple and easy banana muffin. This time around, since Strawberry is in season, I made Strawberry Streusel Banana Muffin, gluten free way. If you’ve seen any of my Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Muffin, then you’ll be familiar with this one. This one uses my gluten free plain banana muffin recipe plus the addition of fresh Strawberry in the batter and homemade Strawberry Jam in the center, topped with crunchy streusel toppings. All these, in this simple muffin recipe with a twist of having a soft and light texture as compared to a sense heavy banana muffin. Let’s check how that’s possible.

How to make the muffin crumb soft and fluffy

This muffin has a soft texture and not the usual dense kind of muffin. This was achieved from beating the egg and sugar until it get to the pale color and very smooth runny consistency. Beating these ingredients incorporates air into the mixture this making it lighter. This muffin is also moist, thanks to the banana, yogurt and almond flour. These ingredients contributed a lot to how perfect the texture came out, and how soft and moist it was. This muffin stays soft even when left in the refrigerator for few days because it doesn’t use butter. Now the sweetness , for me it is just right to my liking. In my first attempt, I use 1/2 cup sugar and it turned it sweeter than what I want it to be. In my second attempt, I reduced the sugar to 5 tbsp (1/4 cup + 1 tbsp), that’s about a little bit more than 2 tsp sugar per 1 piece of muffin which I find perfect. It you want it sweeter, you could go 6 tbsp.  You see, that simple trick made a huge difference in the texture of this muffin. Once you tried this method, you might never go back to the traditional dense muffin. It’s worth the extra step of creaming the sugar and egg l give you the best softer banana muffin.

There’s more to like in this muffin

The softness is not the only thing that you will love in this muffin. You will fall in love with the bits and pieces of fresh Strawberry and the homemade Strawberry Jam in the center and on top of the muffin. It not only added extra moisture to the muffin, it also made the muffin certified Strawberry Muffin, all real and hommade. My friend told me, there’s only two banana muffin flavor worth eating, Chocolate Chip Banana and Strawberry Banana Muffin. I wouldn’t disagree at all, I love both these variation. In fact, chocolate chip variation is probably the first one I made for this muffin not to mention cookies. But when it comes to fruity variation, for me it’s always between Strawberry and Blueberry, I’m totally obsessed with these two berries. I have so many Strawberry and Blueberry recipes in my website and I still cannot get enough of making more.

Featured Video – Strawberry Streusel Yogurt Muffin

Top it with Streusel Toppings

This banana muffin got it all from the inside and out. It’s soft and moist, plus and extra treat of streusel toppings. This is another thing that I am obsessed about, streusel toppings. When I started making this I simply cannot stopped adding it in all of my muffins. I find streusel toppings perfect for fruity muffin variation or for plain muffin or banana bread. It made muffins and banana bread extra delicious. I love the crunch that it gave, aside from making the muffin pleasing to the eye.

What made this Banana Muffin gluten free?

I’ve substituted regular all-purpose flour with a combination of Almond Flour (Almond Meal) and Brown Rice Flour. I used Rob Red Mills for both, this brand is my go to brand for non-standard types of flour. The quality is really exceptional, although they are quite expensive but it’s with it. You can certainly use another brand that you trust, is your call. Based on my research, it seems that making a gluten free baked products simply requires a substitution of dry ingredients (normally flour) for a gluten free ingredients. It’s not as tricky as making Vegan baked products as gluten free doesn’t care in using dairy products which is almost all the time present in any bake products. This is why it is very important to use a good quality replace ingredients, in this case replacement for flour. Replacement flour could have different texture, Almond flour for instance has a very grainy texture which makes baked products crumbly and loose. I also noticed that it doesn’t absorbs liquid as much as other flour replacement (white rice, brown rice flour etc). This means using all Almond flour could possibly means using less liquid in form yogurt or sour cream, eggs, butter, milk etc. Anyway, bottom like get to know tie substitute ingredient you are using, do some little research and learn from others experiences.

Why do we bake at 400F and 350F?

I had been baking most of my muffins when I was starting at 350F all throughout, until I encounter a post discussing baking temperature of muffins. To summarize the story, baking in first 5 minutes at 400F will allow the muffin to rise fast thus making the muffin taller and will will the muffin build the structure. Then baking the muffin at 350F will then allow the muffin to hold and sustain the structure without burning it. The trick works, but you still have to be mindful of the length of baking time. Under baking the muffin could make the Center sink.

For Non-Gluten Free Eaters

Don’t shy away from this recipe just because you don’t care about eating gluten free bake products. Well, good news is this recipe can be easily converted to regular muffin recipe using regular flour. Simply replace almond flour and brown rice flour with the same amount of all-purpose flour, it’s that simple. Life goes on as usual, the other ingredients and instructions remains the same.

Strawberry Jam, It’s Homemade

I used my homemade Strawberry Jam because I believe that homemade are always the best and even more when it comes to jam. It is easy to make and you can control the level of sugar. You just have to meet the bare minimum required so that you get the thick jelly consistency. But of course you can use store-bought if that is your preference but make your own jam is seriously easy to make. You will only need 3 ingredients, you can make it in less than 1 hour.
You don’t need a lot for this recipe, about 1/4 – 1/3 cup just to fill the center of the muffins  I added about 2 tsp at the center, I would suggest not to add too much in the center as it will make the muffin too heavy.
If you happen to be partial with Strawberry and Banana combination, how about Banana and Nutella? Yes? Does that sounds good to you? Well, if you answered “Yes” then you should go checkout my Nutella Swirl Banana Muffins or my Dulce De Leche Banana Muffin, these two are one of my favorite Banana Muffin recipes.

Four Important Tips for a Light & Soft Banana Muffin

1. Room Temperature Egg – Because this recipe call for creaming the egg and sugar, it is VERY important to have the egg at room temperature, so don’t ignore this reminder. A room temperature egg whips up better as compared to cold one. If you are short of time, you can submerge the egg in warm water for 5 minutes, that should do the trick
2. Ripe Banana – only use ripe banana, the one with brown spots in the skin is the best one to use. Those brown spots are sign that the banana is ripe, and ripe means softer and sweeter. This is the state of banana that would give the natural sweetness to the banana bread or muffin. Now if you don’t have ripe banana, I’ve read that you can bake the banana wrap in foil at 300F for 10 mins to get it soft, however I personally haven’t tried that. I always prefer either buying a ripe banana ready to use for banana bread or buy a banana and let it ripe naturally in my kitchen counter. One thing to remember, the warmer the place you keep the banana, the faster it will ripen. This is why input my banana in the fridge specially during summer if I don’t want it to ripen fast, and I also wrap the end with the stem with a cling wrap. That will block the air from coming in and it will slowdown the ripening process.
3. Don’t over mix – You’ve heard this over and over again in many recipes but I will still repeat it here. Over mixing can make the bread though because as you mix more, gluten is form and that causes a tough bread. Once you add the dry ingredients just mix it until combine, no more no less.
4. Creaming Egg & Sugar – Although not a traditional process in making banana bread, creaming egg and sugar instead of just mixing everything in one bowl gave a lighter banana muffin texture. So don’t skip this step and see for yourself why I recommend doing this. Creaming the egg and sugar will allow air to build up into the batter thus giving a lighter and airy texture, almost like a cake but still feels and taste like banana bread, but better.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Mashed Banana
• 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt
• 3/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 3 tbsp Brown Sugar
• 3 tbsp Granulated Sugar
• 1 Egg – room temperature
• 1/4 cup Almond Flour
• 3/4 cup Brown Rice Flour (Gluten Free)
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh Strawberry (If using frozen, do not thaw)
• 1/3 cup Strawberry Jam – optional

Struesel Toppings:

• 1 tbsp melted Butter
• 1 tbsp Almond Flour
• 1 tbsp Brown Rice Flour (Gluten Free)
• 1 tbsp Brown Sugar
• 1 tbsp White Sugar
• pinch of Salt
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tbsp chopped Pecans or sliced Almond

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Line a muffin tin with muffin liner or spray with oil.
2. Make the Streusel Toppings: Microwave the butter until melted. Add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and nuts. Use a form to mix then use your fingers to crumble the mixture until it looks like a coarse crumb. Chill in the refrigerator while you make the muffin batter.
3. Mashed the Banana: In a small bowl, mash ripe banana. You can use a fork or immersion blender to do this.
4. Banana + Yogurt Mixture: Add in yogurt, vanilla extract and baking soda. Set aside while you make the muffin batter.
5. Beat Sugar and Egg: Beat sugar and egg until pale in color an smooth and runny consistency.
6. Sugar & Egg + Banana Mixture: Add in banana mixture and mix until just combined.
7. Dry Ingredients: Add almond flour, brown rice flour and salt and mix just until combine.
8. Add-In: if you are using any add-in like chocolate chips, nuts or fruits this is the step to add them in. Manually mix using a spatula.
9. Divide the Muffin Batter: Divide the batter into 6 muffin tin holes with muffin liner. Add Strawberry Jam in the middle if desired. Simply pour batter into the muffin pan about 1/4 full, then add 1 tbsp Strawberry Jam and cover with muffin batter up to 3/4 full. Sprinkle top with Streusel toppings and slightly press to make the toppings stick to the batter.
10. Bake at pre-heated 400F for 10 minutes then lower the temperature to 350F and bake for another 13 minutes. That would be a total of 23 minutes.
    Remove and transfer in a cooling rack.

Makes 6 regular size muffins

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Here are some other banana muffin recipes, check them out!

• White Chocolate Banana Muffin
• Chocolate Banana Muffin
• Pina Colada Banana Bread and Muffin (No Alcohol)
• Strawberry Swirl Banana Muffins
• Nutella Swirl Banana Muffins
• Dulce De Leche Swirl Banana Muffin
• BESTever Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Muffin
• [VIDEO] Small Batch Strawberry Streusel Yogurt Muffins
• [VIDEO] Small Batch Apple Cinnamon Streusel Muffins (Makes 4)
• Classic Cornbread Muffins
• Gluten Free: Small Batch Chocolate Chip Banana Muffin
• Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, quick and easy!
• Dulce De Leche Swirl Banana Muffin

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