Mini Maple Banana Bundts

Today seemed longer than it should have been--Friday night could not come soon enough. Being fortunate enough to leave work early, I decided to stop by the grocery store in preparation for "operation find something to sell for the online bake sale." I wanted something that represented what this blog was about--gluten-free, mostly healthy, and natural delectable delights.

Oh---and chocolate, there's that too.

Adapting BabyCakes (Erin McKenna's famous NYC bakery) Banana Bread Recipe, for once in my life the first experiment for my mini maple banana bundts ended up exactly the way I had envisioned them; moist, chewy, chocolatey, with a bit of mapley sweetness. I'm not sure that mapley or chocolatey are words--but they represent these little bundts perfectly.

Vegan, gluten free, and made with only 100% maple syrup, these little pieces of heaven will fool everyone. I fed one to my nonna who moaned in satisfaction--and she's a gluten, butter, milk, and eggs lover. She couldn't even tell that these were missing some of her favorite staples. So without further ado, or rambling, here's my recipe for the most amazing bundts in the world!

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup corn oil 
• 3/4 cup 100% pure dark maple syrup
• 1 cup rice milk  (cow's milk, almond, or soy milk will also work just as well)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
• optional: 1 cup mini semi sweet organic chocolate morsels or carob chips (the mini is important, the big ones will be too big for these little bundts and carob chips will also work nicely)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix the dry ingredients first, then add the wet, whisking heavily to avoid clumps. Finally add in the bananas and the chocolate chips. In a mini bundt pan like this one , spray the cups with a non-stick spray and pour the batter in, filling each cup 3/4 of the way full. Place in the over and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Place a toothpick in the center and when it comes out clean, they are ready to take out.

Use a blunt butter knife to pop them out of their molds, placing them on wax paper to cool. In a stainless steel pan, boil 1/2 cup maple syrup making sure to continually stir it. Watch the syrup as it caramelizes. You'll know the topping is done when it turns from transluscent to opaque. Once this occurs, immediately take off heat and drizzle over the bundts as you please. Serve and enjoy!

This one I did a more caramely drizzling

This is more of a candied maple topping...I like this the best, which means leaving the maple syrup boiling for a bit longer. 

A picture is worth a thousand words! Or just one--yum!