Scrumptious Banana Nut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins - Gluten and Dairy-Free

As a card-carrying member of both the wheat and dairy fan clubs, these little bites of goodness challenge all my assumptions about gluten- and dairy-free baked goods by being remarkably tasty and moist.

I learned about these muffins from my good friend, Liza, who makes them all the time. The ingredients are so healthy that I never would have believed that the end result could be so good if I hadn't tasted it myself. But there's some sort of magical baking chemistry that happens to turn bananas, eggs, nut butter, vinegar, baking soda and honey into something that's really hard to stop eating.

You just throw all the ingredients except the chocolate chips into the bowl of your food processor and blend until you've got a smooth batter. I recommend making a double batch, both because they go fast, but also because doing so saves you the messy task of measuring out the nut butter because you can just dump an entire jar in (unless you've got something other than a 16 oz jar, that is.)

There's room for creativity - you can fill or top them with your choice of coconut, coconut flakes, jam, peanut butter and more. But the only thing I ever add is chocolate chips because I see no need to mess with perfection.

Let them cool a tad before you remove them from the tins. This is sometimes harder than it sounds so I use this little, skinny silicone spatula to gently pry them out since it both won't melt (which was, unfortunately, not the case with the plastic one I tried the first time...) and it also won't damage the coating on my non-stick muffin tins.

Tip for you - if you have bananas that are on the verge of going bad but you're not ready to bake, peel them and freeze them until you are ready. Just remember to take them out a few hours ahead of time so they have time to defrost. It takes the pressure off having to use things up (or am I the only one who stresses out about that?) if you're busy or about to go out of town.

A note on the provenance of this recipe. It came to me via my friend Liza who found it on Halle's blog, Whole Lifestyle Nutrition and it appears that Halle got it from Paige at Simple Bites. Thanks, ladies.

-- print recipe --
Quick, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Mini-Muffins (Gluten & Dairy-Free)
Makes 24 mini or 12 regular muffins

Ingredients

* 1 cup nut butter (I like almond butter best but I used peanut for this batch as I was out of almond)
* 2 ripe, medium-sized bananas
* 2 large eggs (try to find pasture-raised, organic from a local farm)
* 1 tsp organic vanilla extract
* 2 Tbsps organic sugar, maple syrup or honey
* ½ tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
* Optional but highly recommended: chocolate chips! You can also use dried cranberries, coconut flakes, pepitas, or a dollop of jam but the chocolate is my favorite by far.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400° F and grease your muffin tin.

2. Place all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor or blender and blend until well-mixed.

3. Pour the batter into the greased muffin tin. Add additional toppings of your choice to each muffin and lightly stir into each cup. Or, if you'd prefer to fill the centers, pour the batter in halfway up, add a dollop of the filling of your choice and top off with the rest of the batter.

4. Bake for 12 minutes for mini-muffins or 15 minutes for full-sized muffins or until golden brown on top. Let cool briefly then turn them out (I used a mini silicone spatula to get mine out without damaging the non-stick coating on my muffin tray) onto a wire rack to cool.

You might also like:

• Gluten- & Grain-Free Coconut Almond Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• 5 Kitchen Tools I Can't Do Without
• Easy & Moist Chocolate Cupcakes (Vegan but Delicious!)

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