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This recipe was my husband's idea. I was thinking out loud and asked him what my next recipe should be and he came up with banana nut muffins. At first, I wasn't too excited because for me, creating a baking recipe usually involves multiple attempts over multiple weekends and tons of wasted ingredients. Then I remembered, how easy bananas are to bake with. Seriously, if you are still trying to figure out the gluten/grain-free baking thing (aren't we all?), start with banana-based batters. It's so much easier.
This actually turned out perfect on the first attempt and I made them again for Christmas brunch the next week. Yes, I'm behind on posting all the recipes I've been making. Everyone enjoyed them and unlike a lot of grain-free baked goods, they really don't taste any different from traditional banana nut muffins. The texture and everything was exactly as I remember it. Yours may be darker on the inside simply because I didn't realize I had the oven rack too low for the muffins in the photos. The recipe worked before and after I moved the oven rack but the lower position required an additional five minutes to cook thoroughly.
I've put together a new resource for those of you who are interested in grain-free baking or even if you are unfamiliar with a non-baking ingredient I might be using. You can access this ingredient guide under my about menu at the top of the page. It contains everything you'd ever want to know about grain-free flours, dairy alternatives, peanut-free nut and seed butters, fats, and lot of other ingredients found in allergy-friendly cooking. It's something I wish I would have had access to when I first had to change my diet so I really hope it's helpful for a lot of people.
Speaking of all things allergy-friendly, do you know how hard it is to find nuts that are gluten-free? Of course, I understand that nuts don't actually contain gluten but it seems like every package I pick up is processed on shared equipment with wheat. And the bulk aisle is a celiac's nightmare... who even knows what ingredients those foods have been exposed to. Which is really, too bad because they're also expensive so bulk pricing would be ideal. Does anyone want to open a celiac-friendly bulk item store with me? I'm only halfway joking. We'd be highly successful catering to our many customers consisting of me, you, and the other 11 people on the planet that worry about that stuff...
Anyways, I've gotten distracted. My point is, if you have trouble finding gluten-free walnuts or pecans, substitute any nut you like or omit them completely. I could only find a monster-sized bag of gluten-free walnuts (and I don't like walnuts) so I used pecans instead. Those two would be the most ideal nuts but I'm sure others would be good too. You could even get creative and add something completely different like chocolate chips or dried fruit. I used to add chopped dried apricots to my banana bread and it was wonderful.
If you're omitting the nuts completely because you have a nut allergy, you'll want to replace the almond flour too. I've only tested this recipe using almond flour but usually, sunflower seed flour or pumpkin seed flour make good replacements. Just be aware that the muffins may turn slightly green from the high levels of chlorophyll reacting with the baking soda but it will be perfectly fine to eat.
Recipe
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Paleo banana nut muffins that can be made in a blender for easy cleanup. Free from gluten, dairy, and refined sugar yet taste just like the original version.
Ingredients
- 3 bananas, ripe
- ¼ C coconut oil, melted
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ C honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 C almond flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ C walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a 6 cup muffin tin with liners.
- Use a hand mixer or blender (see notes) to combine the bananas, coconut oil, eggs, honey, and vanilla. Mash the banana with a fork beforehand, if needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly blend this a little at a time into the wet ingredients then stir the nut pieces in by hand.
- Evenly distribute the batter between the 6 muffin cups then bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before serving.
Notes
If you have a blender that can handle batters, I'd recommend using that. The last time I made this, I used my Blendtec and didn't even mix the dry ingredients separately and it still turned out great! Makes for easy cleanup too.
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