Banana Nut Muffins

Another recipe for you.

The only thing I hated about going paleo (besides giving up pasta) was the fact that I wouldn't be able to bake anymore. Baking is one of my passions, and I just assumed that when I threw sugar out the window I would have to get rid of baking too, but fortunately this is NOT true. There are plenty of paleo recipes out there, even for MUFFINS of all things. So in my excitement I headed out to the grocery store and picked up some paleo-friendly flours so I could give these recipes a whirl. One of my favorites by far is the Banana Nut Muffin recipe I found here. They're originally meant for macadamia nuts, but those are rather fatty and weren't in stock at my go-to grocery store when I was craving muffins so I had to get crafty and throw in walnuts instead. I stayed mostly true to the original recipe, but I strayed a little due to lack of correct ingredients.

So the original recipe calls for:

• 2/3 cup macadamia nuts of choice, chopped
• 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup blanched almond flour
• ¼ cup organic coconut flour - source
• 3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup raw creamy honey
• 1/3 cup organic coconut oil, melted and cooled
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp unrefined sea salt
• 1 tsp coconut water vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

I underlined the things I made slight adjustments to. Feel free to use the original recipe if you want, or follow my changes. Whatever is easiest for you.

First off, I didn't have macadamia nuts on hand so I used finely chopped walnuts, but I kept the measurement the same.

Secondly I didn't have the right number of ripe bananas on hand. Oops. I can't be alone here, please tell me this happens to other people too. The best bananas for baking are a darker yellow with some brown spots on them because they're the sweetest, and the mushiest, and the point of using bananas in paleo recipes is for the sugar. Duh. So the fact that I had 2 out of 3 bananas in the correct "state" was unfortunate because I really needed that last banana to be much more ripe. It was freshly bought, and completely yellow (I dont't think green would work...), so it clearly wasn't going to be mushy or sweet enough.

BUT DO I HAVE A TRICK FOR YOU.

The next time you're one ripe banana short you can fake the last banana's sweet taste and consistency. 

What I do is peel the yellow banana and put it in a separate bowl from my ripe bananas, and try to mash it with a fork the best I can, and then I add cocoanut milk, and a little bit of honey to the mashed banana bowl. This makes the banana SO much easier to continue mashing and stirring. Plus the honey will make it sweet enough to use in substitute for a ripe banana.

You're welcome.

I don't know if I would use that trick with ALL unripe bananas, because sometimes unripe bananas can irritate your mouth and tongue, and unfortunately that trait will be present in the muffin (irritating muffins are no fun) but if it doesn't bother you then go ahead and give it a try. 

I underlined the "cocoanut water vinegar" because I don't even know WHAT that is, and I didn't have any on me so I used pure unsweetened lemon juice instead. It worked just as well, and you can't taste the difference as far as I'm concerned.

Lastly I underlined vanilla because I am a total sucker for sweets, and 1 tsp did not look like enough vanilla to me so I may have used 2 generous teaspoons. You shouldn't do this if you want to minimize the sugar and fat content in your muffins, but it felt like a necessary change for me. In my defense I have this fantastic vanilla from Mexico (and I feel fancy because I didn't order it online, I literally went to Mexico and bought it, and then took it back in my suitcase), and it's to die for so I overuse it in everything.


I followed the baking instructions pretty closely, so I'll just copy-paste them below, and underline the replacements I made.


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees convection (I didn't even remember to turn on convection when I made these... oops).
Take out 2 muffin tins and place muffin liners inside.

• In a large bowl, add nuts, coconut, flours, baking soda, salt; mix to combine.
• To the same bowl, add eggs, bananas, honey, coconut oil, vinegar, vanilla; mix again to combine.
• Drop by tablespoons into the muffin tins. Fill 14 muffins full. *This will make 14 full sized muffins as long as there is no batter eaten in the process. (I made big muffins so I could make it 12. Too much work to use another pan for just 2 muffins you know?)
• Bake for about 30-35 minutes, rotating the pans at 20 minutes for best results. Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes. Then move muffins to a cooling rack, which helps to firm up their bottoms. Enjoy!