These banana bread muffins are light, healthy, and delicious. They fill the home with the most delightful aroma. The perfect not-too-sweet treat that is chocolaty and filled with good ingredients. I don’t even mind the kids reaching for another. No one will believe they are vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and paleo.
Frequently, we let the bananas sit around and ripe to make this muffin recipe. It's easy to put together, and most ingredients are already in your kitchen. If not, no worries, with a few substitutions and adjustments, it can accommodate most dietary needs.
Ingredients to make Banana Bread Muffins
- rolled oats or oat flour
- almond flour
- flax seeds or flax meal
- coconut sugar or maple syrup
- baking soda
- baking powder
- salt
- bananas (overly ripe)
- milk of your choice (I prefer almond milk or regular milk if not dairy-free)
- olive oil
- vanilla
- chocolate chips
How to make banana bread muffins
There are thousands of different recipes and variations on how to make banana bread muffins. Why should you choose mine? Well, they are:
- simple to make
- the perfect snack or treat
- healthy, yet kid approved
- gluten-free
- refined sugar-free
- vegan and egg-free
- dairy-free
- with adjustments, can be nut-free
What makes these banana muffins gluten-free?
I have tested this recipe more times than I can count. I find that the best combo for the muffins is part oats, part almond flour, and a hint of flaxseed/flax meal. The recipe calls for rolled oats, and even though oats are naturally gluten-free, they are frequently contaminated or packaged at facilities that process other gluten products. So if you suffer from Celiacs or are allergic to gluten, make sure to use gluten-free rolled oats.
What makes these banana muffins vegan?
Most recipes for baked goods call for eggs, which give them structure and moisture. If you are vegan, suffering from an egg allergy, or simply low on eggs during this quarantine, no worries. This recipe works great without any eggs. The combination of bananas, flaxseed, milk, and olive oil makes it all work and come together.
How to make banana muffins safe for nut allergies?
Living with food allergies is no easy feat. It is difficult enough to avoid the allergen itself. Often many foods and ingredients are contaminated or made in facilities with allergens. As a result, searching for healthy options takes the backseat to merely finding foods that are allergy safe. It also doesn’t help that many gluten-free and dairy-free recipes use nut flours and nut milk, which pose a risk.
In order to make nut-free banana muffins, swap the combination of oat flour/almond flour/ flax meal for 2 cups of regular flour. Use milk of your choice, regular milk or oat milk works well. Lastly, when working with regular flour cut the cooking time to about 20 - 23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry.
Inspiration for the recipe
This all began with a search for what to do with extra bananas, the ones that are overly ripe. I like to keep food waste at a minimum and try to repurpose as much as I can. I could freeze them, I could use them in shakes. But what about making a healthy treat?
When I stumbled upon Sarah B’s beautiful blog, My New Roots, I was inspired by her Coziest Banana Bread recipe. I began testing the banana bread, and while I found the flavors to be tasty, the actual gluten-free baking to be challenging. Especially when baking with mostly all almond flour, the result yields a gummy, uncooked inside and an overcooked outside.
After some tweaks and brainstorming with a friend, it all started to come together. I discovered that by balancing the ratio of almond flour to oat flour and adding a hint of flax meal, bound it all together. Besides, making the recipe into muffins rather than banana bread resolved other issues I was having. Ultimately, the result was banana-chocolate goodness.
Lastly, if you try this recipe, I would love to hear about it! Be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! And if you snapped some photos, tag and share them with me on Instagram.
Banana Bread Muffins (Vegan, Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup almond flour
- ¼ cup flax meal or flax seeds
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients
- 3 overly ripe bananas, mashed
- ¼ cup almond or regular milk, (your choice of milk)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix-ins and additions
- ¾ cup chocolate chips
- ½ banana , cut into 12 - about ⅛ inch thick circles
Instructions
- Measure out the oats, grind them in a Vitamix, blender or coffee grinder until flour-like consistency. It does NOT need to be super fine. If using flax seeds and not flax meal, grind them with the oats. Combine with the rest of the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.
- In another bowl using a fork mash up bananas until creamy and smooth. Add the remainder of the wet ingredients and mix. Alternatively, you could mix all the wet ingredients in the Vitamix.
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until mixed thru. Fold chocolate chips into the batter. Make sure they are evenly distributed.
- Line a muffin tray with cupcake/muffin liners or simply butter the sides and bottoms. Fill each one about ⅔ of the way. Finish by putting the banana circles on top.
- Bake for about 30-35 min, test with a toothpick at around 30 min mark, it should be dry. Remove and rest the muffins on a rack. Enjoy!
Notes
- Refined Sugar-Free Alternatives: Feel free to swap maple syrup for coconut sugar. Either one works.
- For Nut Allergies: Swap almond flour, oats, and flax meal for 2 cups of regular flour. Also, make sure to use regular milk or oat milk. For regular flour - cook for about 20 - 23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry.
- For Gluten Allergies: Make sure to use rolled oats that are gluten-free.
- Inspired by My New Roots, Coziest Banana Bread recipe.
Tools and Specialty Ingredients
Irina says
I’ve made these muffins 4 times to date. Aside from great taste, I loved how easy they are to put together! First off, it never occurred to me to use the blender for mixing wet ingredients! I want to say genius! Why didn’t I think of that?! Whole thing takes 9 minutes (I timed it) to put together. One bowl, one spatula. Minimal clean up. I’ve tried variations of sugar, but omitted it all together for the two last batches. Bananas and chocolate chips gave enough sweetness. Other than that, I followed the recipe to a T. It worked great with both oat milk as well as almond.
My husband who is vegan, has a sweet tooth and was definitely impressed. Kids loved these too and I feel good about the ingredients knowing these are packed with protein and fiber.
Thanks Minty Kitchen!! This one is a keeper 🙂
Mikayla says
my absolute favorite banana bread recipe! SO GOOD 🤤😋
Kathryn says
Drooooool worthy!