Gluten Free Banana Muffins

I LOVE GLUTEN! Seriously, a life without bread, pasta and cookies (made with wheat flour!) would be a very sad one for me. But, my sister is both gluten and dairy-intolerant, so I want to learn and explore gluten-free baking a bit more. Side note: Making something gluten-free doesn’t suddenly make it healthy! I see this misunderstanding a lot, so I just want to put that out there! I have a lot of thoughts on this topic, but I’ll save it for another time- this is about banana bread (muffins)!

Banana bread is delicious, easy to make, and you most likely have all of the ingredients in your pantry and fridge already. Traditional banana bread however, is not the most healthy option. It generally contains a lot of fat and sugar, that I’ve found is not necessary for it to taste delicious! So, I took this gluten-free challenge as a way to bake with whole grains, unrefined sugars and healthy fats (a little butter never hurt anyone) and turn traditional banana bread into a great pre-workout snack or something you could bring on a bike ride for mid-ride fuel.

I adapted this recipe from a few different ones that I found, and decided to use rolled oats, almond flour and millet flour for the dry ingredients. This is not a vegan recipe, so I used eggs, a little butter (my sister can tolerate butter, just not other dairy…who knows!?) and coconut oil for the fats. I used organic cane sugar and maple syrup as the sweet components, along with the bananas of course! And added coconut for flavor and texture along with golden raisins. Here are some of the ingredients/brands that I used:

The first time I tried this recipe, I made it as a loaf, and it was a little too crumbly. I adjusted a few things, so I think this recipe would work as a loaf too, but I like the muffins because they are easy to carry with you as a grab-and-go snack or like I mentioned before, to put in your jersey pocket for a bike ride. Also, its built-in portion control!

Yield: 24 muffins | Bake Time: 20-25 mins | Oven Temp: 350 degrees

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 Tbsp butter, melted
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup organic dark brown cane sugar, packed down
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (grind fresh if possible)
• 1 1/4 cups almond flour
• 1 1/4 cups millet flour
• 1 1/4 cups gluten-free rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I use a convection oven on convection bake, so if you are using a standard oven, your bake time might be slightly longer.
2. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray. I didn’t use muffin liners, because I think they’re annoying, and not necessary if you grease the tin well, but you can use them if you’d like!  (My muffin tins make 12 muffins each, so you can use 2 tins or make this in two batches.)
3. Mash bananas with a fork- should be chunky so you have big pieces in the muffins. Melt the butter and coconut oil on stove top or in a microwave. Do not let it simmer! Coconut oil has a low smoke point and will burn very quickly! Set aside and let cool.
4. Add butter and coconut oil to bananas along with all of the other wet ingredients- everything through the almond milk. Stir with whisk.
5. Add all remaining ingredients, and stir until combined.
6. Use and ice cream scooper or 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour mixture into muffin tins. This guarantees even sizing and keeps the edges of the tin much neater.
7. Place the tins on a baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden brown.
8. Cool on baking rack, and enjoy!

**If you want to make a loaf- banana bread instead of muffins- this amount will fill one standard 9x5in loaf pan. Adjust cooking time to 45-50mins.

***Also, this is not a vegan recipe, but you could make it vegan by replacing the egg with flax egg, and using all coconut oil instead of butter.

 

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