I just have to say that I love baking with almond flour. Now that I’ve gotten a better feel about how it works, I’ve been making up almond flour recipes left and right! (I order my almond flour from Honeyville Farms.) I’m very happy with how these muffins turned out. You can probably tell from past blogs that I’m a little obsessed with banana bread and banana muffins. These muffins do not disappoint and satisfy my cravings for both banana muffins and chocolate. We are already on our second batch and I know I will be making them again again.
I guess you could call these muffins “Paleo.” I call them amazingly delicious and low-guilt. I wasn’t aiming to make them Paleo, I just wanted a treat that was gluten-free, grain-free and low sugar. I think the Paleo diet is great. It’s based on real food. It focuses on eating healthy meat and protein, vegetables and fruit, nuts and seeds. As a sufferer of fructose malabsorption, it’s a lot of the foods I can eat. However, I don’t follow a strict Paleo diet. I eat chocolate, and drink wine and coffee. I also eat dairy, such as butter and cheese. I could probably live without butter, but I don’t want to live without cheese! It just so happens to be one of my favorite foods. Give me a chunk of extra-sharp cheddar or some blue cheese crumbled on my salad and I’m happy. Cheese is low-carb, a good source of calcium, plus it’s one of the few foods my stomach has no problem tolerating.
I don’t have anything against butter either (in moderation!) and I use it in this recipe. Coconut oil would be a tasty alternative. It would also make it more Paleo-friendly. Still, I grapple with calling these muffins “Paleo.” While the sugar in these muffins is greatly reduced compared to standard muffins, there is still sugar, which the paleo diet eschews. Plus, can you imagine Paleolithic people baking muffins? Me neither. That’s just silly. So I’m calling these muffins what they are: a much healthier alternative to the wheat- and sugar-laden muffins of the typical American diet. And yes, one of these muffins is delicious as it looks!
Double Chocolate Almond Banana Muffins
Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Not Low-FODMAP*
makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
2 large ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Directions
- Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners or lightly grease.
- Mash bananas in a large bowl. Stir in eggs, butter or coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla.
- In another bowl, sift together the almond flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add flour mixture to banana mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake 25 to 30 minutes, until muffins spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean.
These are absolutely delicious! My son and I both love them. Thanks!
Love these! Made them last night and are even better the next day. I even think I forgot the baking soda – oops!
Um…what am I doing wrong?? I just made these and they are super dry. They won't even stick together after baking and they look like dirt brownies??
It sounds like you maybe used too much almond flour. Make sure to not pack the flour into the cup, just lightly spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off. It may make a difference depending on the brand of almond flour used as well. I use Honeyville to make these muffins, but I haven't tested them with Bob's Red Mill or other brands. Hope this helps and I'm sorry the muffins didn't work out for you!
I also didn't use almond flour! LOL! I used what I had on hand – an all-purpose, gluten-free, rice-based flour. Sounds like the type of flour makes a difference! I'll try again! Thanks!!
They look too good NOT to try to make again! 🙂
Yep, that would do it! Almond flour is very different from other flours and cannot be directly substituted. Hope you try the almond flour and like the muffins!
I love baking and was curious to find out what are the nutrition facts per muffin 456 cal 35.7 g fat 28.9 carb 7.3 fiber 14.4 sugar and 13.7 protein … I might try to omit the maple syrup and use dark chocolate chip:-)
Use sugar free maple syrup. You will not change the moisture content and you Eli are all the cRbs from the sugar in regular maple syrup. Granted that SF uses sucralose but if that’s an issue for you it’s a win. Alternately you could use a teaspoon of maple extract and add in unsweetened almond milk or even coconut milk to get the moisture.