Healthy vegan & gluten-free banana muffins that aren't dry or gritty, and they taste good!
Gorgeous? No. These are one of those, don’t judge a book by its cover, kind of muffins. We could have dolled them up for you and placed a fresh banana slice on the top of each one. The pictures would have been prettier, but that wouldn’t have portrayed how they really looked when they came out of the oven, all hot and steamy, with a slightly brown banana slice on top, and perfectly delicious. And delicious they are were. I had two and my son had ten. In two hours. I’m not kidding. #onlya23yearoldmancaneat10muffinsandstillhavea6pack #lifeisunfair
Alex created this gluten-free and refined sugar-free recipe on Monday morning. She was craving a muffin to go with her tea, so she had two choices. She could walk around the corner to the coffee shop and buy a 600-calorie muffin, or, she could make her own, low calorie muffins. Clearly, you can guess the outcome.
After hearing all about them, I had to make some too. After eating one, I had to share them with you.
As we head into January, or Veganuary as we vegans like to call it, we’re reevaluating some of the ingredients that we have been consuming, such as refined sugar, white flour, and oil. We eat a pretty healthy diet, and compared to most, we’d be considered in the top one percent when it comes to our food choices. However, we’re of the mindset that there’s always room for improvement. So in the new year, we’re going to take the next step and reduce, or eliminate, those three evils from our diet. Starting with these no white flour, no sugar, banana muffins.
Are you ready to make some too? Let’s go!
HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY BANANA OAT MUFFINS WITHOUT OIL, GLUTEN, OR SUGAR
First – Make sure that your bananas are ripe. The peel should be almost or mostly brown. This makes for a sweeter muffin.
Second – Grind the oats into a fine flour in your food processor and put them in a large mixing bowl with the other dry ingredients.
Third – Blend the bananas and the wet ingredients in the food processor until it’s smooth and creamy. It will be thin and watery, not thick.
Fourth – Stir the banana into the dry ingredients until you don’t see any dry flour and then fill the muffin tins three quarters of the way full. Place a slice of banana in the center of each muffin and bake for about 15 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
These gluten-free banana muffins have an amazing texture. They’re not dry and crumbly and they’re not soggy. They’re absolutely perfect. My husband, who is a gluten-free bakery skeptic couldn’t believe that they weren’t made with white flour. And, as I mentioned earlier, my son ate ten of twelve. I’d say that’s a pretty good testament to how delicious these whole food banana muffins are.
They’re also refined sugar-free muffins. The ripe bananas create their own sweetness, so you’ll only have to add three tablespoons of maple syrup to the batter.
Now that you know how to make these quick and healthy banana muffins (it takes less than 30 minutes to whip them up and bake them), it’s time to get baking!
Once you make them, come back and let us know what you think. We love hearing from you.
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Vegan & Gluten-Free Banana Muffins
Equipment
- 1 food processor
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 muffin tin
- 1 Oven
- 1 wire cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats, or oat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup gluten free all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ ripe bananas divided
- 3 tablespoon aquafaba (liquid from chickpeas) or 1 egg equivalent Egg Replacer
- 3 tablespoon Maple Syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (176°C) and lightly grease or line a muffin tin with liners.
- In a food processor, blend the oats until they have the texture of a flour, approximately 45 seconds. Add the baking soda and salt and pulse until well incorporated. Pour the dry ingredients into a separate bowl. Add the gluten free flour to the mixture and mix until well incorporated.
- Prepare the egg replacer while blending 2 ½ of the bananas in the food processor until they are smooth and creamy. Add the egg replacer, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and almond milk to the bananas and blend until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir until all the ingredients are completely incorporated and you don’t see any dry flour.
- Evenly divide the batter into each muffin tin. Slice the rest of the banana and add to the top of every muffin. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.
Notes
Nutrition
Trina says
Hi! So excited to find your site. I scoured it for hours saving recipes to try 🙂 I enjoyed this one, but it isn’t as sweet as I’d like it to be. So glad I made a brown sugar cinnamon crumble for the top. I did that not knowing it wouldn’t be that sweet, so I think my intuition kicked in 😅 I also didn’t have enough batter to make them really big. They’re all a little small/medium sized. Wasn’t sure if that is how they’re supposed to come out? Thanks for the recipe!
Linda Meyer says
Hi Trina! Thank you for the compliment, we're excited that you found us. 🙂 You'll find that our sweet recipes aren't overly sweet. We're happy that your intuition led you to put the topping on them so they were sweet enough for you. They're not big muffins, although you could fill the muffin tins up and make less to increase the size. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. We appreciate your feedback.
Elizabeth says
Delicious! I added some toasted pecans and the texture was just right, not gummy or rubbery. Next time 😊 I will add some chopped banana into the batter to give some added sweetness without the refined sugars. Thanks so much! Looking forward to trying more recipes.
Linda Meyer says
Hi Elizabeth, thank you for taking the time to let us know how much you liked them! This made our day! We love that you added toasted pecans and your idea of adding chopped banana is great. Enjoy!!!
J L Gulliver says
I finally got around to baking these for breakfast this morning. Oh so easy and good tasting, too. My husband gave them a thumb up and then changed it to two. I sliced the bananas for the top in different thicknesses. I prefer the thin slices. Anyway, it gets a gold star and my thanks for another great recipe.
Linda Meyer says
Yay! They aren't the prettiest, but they are delicious and healthy too! Thanks for letting us know, and we wish you and your family a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2018!
Joseph N. says
Hi, Linda.
I must say that those gluten free banana muffins are not that pretty but I know they taste awesome. All your recipes are! I tried several ones and it never fails my taste.
Linda Meyer says
Lol! That's exactly why I wrote that you can't judge a book by its cover. 🙂 Thank you for the kind words, Joseph.
Christine @ Run Plant Based says
These look delicious and much healthier than traditional muffins, thanks!
Linda Meyer says
They are! 🙂 Thanks so much. 🙂