Magic happens when you combine cocoa, a nut butter, bananas and honey to make this stellar, simple, sweet chocolate muffin.
Bananas and Peanut Butter Make the Best Combo
Say that name ten times fast! These muffins! They are as delicious as their name is long. I found this recipe in the midst of a very strict diet with my kids. I was bored of what we were eating and desperately needed something new and exciting.
This muffin saved the day. It is naturally grain free, dairy free and refined sugar free and even with that they are soft, fluffy and delicious.
The bulk of the muffin is bananas and peanut butter. If you cannot have peanut butter in your home, I tested out other nut butters and I am happy to say that they worked out just as well with both cashew butter and almond butter. I preferred the cashew version a little more but the almond is still delicious, the texture was just slightly altered.
I wish I had tested out a sunflower butter but I did not. Not being super familiar with sunflower butter, I can’t promise that it will work. If you try it out, let me know.
Naturally Sweetened
Sweetening with bananas and a small amount of honey, keeps these little puffs of goodness on the healthier side of the spectrum.
Mix a batch of these muffins up, quickly! You need a good quality blender. Add your eggs, bananas, honey and nut butter of choice into your blender. Be sure to put everything in that order. You need the liquid of the eggs at the bottom to help with the blending. Blend until smooth.
If you want to double this recipe, you totally can, I just recommend doing this first part in single portions only. The nut butter can make this blended part a little thick and when the ingredients are doubled, the blender can have a hard time getting through all of it. I am speaking from experience and it was a big mess.
Not a Chocolate Cupcake but Close
Once you have all that goodness blended together, pour it into a bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix. Scoop your batter into your muffin tins and bake. Simple, fast and delicious!
One day when I made these, a neighbor kid came over and saw them sitting on the counter, “Oooh chocolate cupcakes!” she blurted, “Can I have one?” She ate it up and had no idea that it was only pretending to be a chocolate cupcake.
If you or your neighbors need to be gluten free, grain free and dairy free, these chocolate muffins are your new best friend.
Grain Free Chocolate Nut Butter Banana Muffin
Yield 12-15 muffins
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas
1/3 cup honey
1 cup nut butter of choice (see notes)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips – optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a strong blender, add eggs, bananas, honey and nut butter. Blend until smooth. In a medium sized bowl add cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips, if using. Stir well. Pour the banana mixture from the blender into the dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed and no dry streak remain. Next, scoop batter into muffin tins that are lined or greased well. Bake muffins for 18-22 minutes.
Tweak It Notes
- NUT BUTTER – I made this recipe for years with just peanut butter and always loved it. My little two year old cannot have peanuts and so I just recently tried it with the other nut butters. Cashew butter was almost identical in taste and texture to the peanut butter version. Almond butter was slightly drier but still tasted just as good.
- HONEY – You can use maple syrup for a vegan option.
- EGGS – This particular recipe may be tricky to make egg free. I haven’t tried it yet. If I wanted to try, I would use 1 tablespoon flax seed or chia seed and 3 tablespoons water per egg and blend that in the first step.
- BANANAS – If your bananas are not ripe enough, it may make the blending part a little trickier. Make sure they are soft and rip for best sweetness and blendability.
- COCOA – I typically use cacao powder in this recipe and it works great.
- CORN FREE – Check your baking powder for cornstarch if you need to be corn free.
These were so yummy! Thank you for the recipe.
I do enjoy these muffins. I did not expect them to be as tasty as they are, especially since they pose as Chocolate muffins. Imposter? It’s a rather tasty imposter.