Today I had a visit with a wonderful friend of mine who has been totally stressed out lately. I wanted to do something nice for her and thought I would bring some muffins. I have not had much success with gluten free muffins, they usually turn out hard and dry. Since my friend is following a Paleo diet I had the added challenge of making them completely grain free so it would be a nice treat for her. I searched for recipes online and found the recipe for Paleo, Gluten Free and Grain Free Mini Muffins Made With Bananas on Whole Lifestyle Nutrition's website. It is a recipe that I realized later I had previously pinned to my gluten free board on Pinterest. I was not sure exactly how it was going to turn out as there is no flour in it what so ever. But I was determined to try.
Surprisingly they are really great. Hot out of the oven they raise up just like regular muffins and have the texture similar to a souffle or egg dish. But they actually taste like banana chocolate muffins. Even once they have cooled they were still great. Cooler the texture is closer to an actual fluffy muffin. They did take 5 minutes longer cooking time than stated in the recipe, make sure you use toothpick to test for doneness. But when cooked they look exactly like a muffin.
Since taking these to my friends this afternoon I have been told they were devoured and am posting this recipe with her in mind so they can make these muffins for themselves. Mine are mostly gone as well.
Ingredients
~ 1 cup nut butter, any variety. I used smooth almond butter.
~ 2 medium sized bananas, approximately 2/3 cup smashed banana. The riper the banana the sweeter.
~ 2 lg eggs
~ 1 tsp vanilla
~ 2 Tbsp raw honey, or other natural sweetener such as maple syrup or stevia
~ 1/2 tsp baking soda
~ 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
~ toppings: dehydrated unsweetened coconut flakes, raisins, flaxseed, dark chocolate chips, cinnamon, or anything else you can think of
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Place all ingredients into food processor. You can also use a stick blender if you have one.
3. Blend until well mixed. If using fresh bananas I would suggest blending those first before adding other ingredients as they tend to lump up and not blend smoothly. Previously frozen and defrosted bananas would blend nicely (but might need a little more cooking time as they would make the batter more liquid).
4. Pour batter into greased muffin tin. You can also use a mini muffin pan to make 24 mini muffins. I used paper muffin liners instead of greasing the pan as I was unsure just how Paleo cooking spray is.
5. Add additional toppings of your choice to each muffin and lightly stir to incorporate into each cup. I sprinkled finely chopped dark chocolate over the muffins, stirred it in and then sprinkled more on top.
6. Cook time: 15 minutes for full size muffins, 10 minutes for mini muffins. Mine took a total of 20 minutes to cook completely, rotating the pan halfway through cooking.
You can reheat these by placing in a toaster oven for 4 minutes at 350F to warm them slightly. But they are great at room temperature.
Makes 12 regular sized muffins, or 24 mini muffins.
