These muffins are absolutely delicious. Divinely moist with chunks of banana and hints of cinnamon. Annnnd, these muffins are also good for you. I swear! Why so good? No flour. No butter. No oil. How’s that to start? And how’s that possible, you ask?
The almonds!
What makes these muffins (or cake/bread if you choose to do that instead) so great for you is the almond factor. Instead of refined flours we use almond meal, which is very easy to make just by pulsing your almonds in the food processor a few times. There are just tons of health benefits linked to eating almonds (like lowering cholesterol), and almonds are loaded with vitamin E, antioxidants and monounsaturated fats (the same fats found in olive oil). By the way, go ahead and use almonds with the skin on because the flavonoids found in almond skins paired with the vitamin E in the their meat have been shown to more than double antioxidant power in the body. More on that here.
The eggs and almonds pack a good amount of protein, and then paired with the sugars in the banana, these muffins give you a nice boost of long lasting energy. Really nice for the morning.
So this recipe is pretty much brilliant, and I can say that because it’s not originally mine. It came from Jules over at the Stone Soup who is committed to cooking using 5 ingredients or less. Love that. (I did add to the recipe a little here and there so it’s not as simple as the original, but whatever.)
It just blows my mind when baking is so simple, successful and so guiltless too! One important thing to watch out for though is that you don’t pulse the almond meal too long in the food processor or you’ll end up with almond butter. Just stop when it gets like couscous. And if you can, also use a food processor to beat the eggs together with the banana so the mixture gets really really fluffy – this will help with the overall texture. If you can handle these two steps, you’ll find this recipe pretty no fail. I’ve made several variations of this same core recipe many times. It works great as bread or muffins, and feel free to add in more cinnamon and even some raisins. For today though, I’ve added cocoa powder to half the batter to give it a chocolaty center!
Everyone loves a little chocolaty surprise. It’s super easy to do this. You just mix some unsweetened cocoa powder into 1/3 of your batter. Then you do a scoop of original batter, followed by a small scoop of the chocolaty batter, followed by another scoop of the original batter. The result is a subtle hit of cocoa goodness at the center of each muffin that nobody will know about until they take a bite! (If you’re doing bread, just follow the same idea using your bread pan.)
Topping it off with some thinly sliced bananas & almonds and a few dots of coarse sea salt is a nice touch too. Oh yes, that salty + sweet.
Recipe
Prep time: 10 minutes. Cook time: About 45 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. I like to use lightly spotted bananas for this recipe, if you use very ripe ones it may take a tad longer to cook through. You can omit the cocoa power and add in some additional cinnamon and even some raisins if you prefer! I like the salty crunch of the coarse sea salt on top, but that’s up to you too.You need:
- 9oz sliced almonds + some extra for topping
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 3 oz sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 bananas (approximately 1/2 lb peeled) + extra slices for topping
- Pinch of coarse sea salt (optional for topping if you like)
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (if doing cocoa center)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300F. Grease baking pan of choice (either an 8-9 inch fluted flan tin, a bread dish or muffin tin) and dust with flour OR lightly moisten baking paper and line tin.
- Whizz 9 oz almonds and baking powder in food processor until finely ground, but be careful not to go too far or you’ll end up with almond butter. Set aside in bowl.
- Whizz eggs, sugar, bananas and cinnamon for about 5 minutes or until pale and really fluffy. Pour over almond meal and stir through.
- If adding cocoa powder, place 1/3 of batter into separate bowl and stir in 2 tbs of unsweetened cocoa powder. To create the chocolaty center, first pour 1/2 your original batter into baking tin, then do your dollop of cocoa batter and then pour remaining original batter to cover cocoa. Top with thinly sliced bananas and almonds. Bake about 40-45 minutes for bread and 30-35 minutes for muffins (or until top is browned and skewer comes out clean). You just don’t want to overcook in the oven because they’ll continue to cook a little as they cool. Sprinkle on sea salt immediately after removing from oven.
91 Comments
I love a solid, easy, and healthy muffin recipe. These are such pretty muffins too!
These look amazing – just my type of flavors. So pretty too with the banana slices on top!
yum! i also like the added touch of topping them with banana slices, looks really cool!
WOW! these look yummy! do you think you can substitue sugar with honey?
Wonderful recipe! Thanks so much for sharing. x
These look so delicious and moist, and I love all of the flavors that went into them. Definitely bookmarking this one especially because lately I have been getting into almond meal recipes.
These look fabulous! I happened to have almond meal at home already — any idea what the measurement would be with premade meal?
JKK- I’d say give the honey a shot. Maybe use just 2oz instead of the 3 called for with sugar. Let me know!
Hi Susan,
Okay, I’m pretty sure that 1 cup almonds makes 2 cups almond meal. So since we’re talking 9 oz I’d say use 2 1/4 cup almond meal. I hope that works!
-gabi
Nuts are easier to digest, and their nutrients more available , if they are first soaked in salt water overnight, then dried in a warm oven.
I’d also try rapadura or raw honey as a sugar replacement if you are finicky about sweets!
Can’t wait to try this, thanks!
Yummo – i have a soft spot for a good muffin. Love them!
yum! those look sooo delicious. I must try to make them
Oh. yum. I’ve been loving almond flour lately… it’s awesome for pancakes. I cannot wait to make these!
what a great idea to use almond meal. such a terrific alternative to the standard flour option and so much more nutritious! I’ll have to try these.
I’ve found that 2 Tbsp warm water and 1 Tbsp ground flax seed makes a great egg substitute for those who are avoiding eggs. I might try that.
Wow, these look beautiful. I can’t wait to try them. Thanks for the almond meal measurement conversion, too: I also have almond meal in the cupboard, just waiting to be put to good use.
YUM. so excited to try this. i love almonds and healthy baking – so easy, just takes a little thinking outside the butter/sugar/eggs box! love your blog by the way, always lovely little gems to find.
I’ve never been a big fan of bananas baked in things, but these look really, really good. I’m always open to a good morning booster!
your site is gorgeous and i can’t wait to try some of your recipes!
Yes! Yes! Yesssssssssss!
I love anything with almond meal, so this is right up my alley!
How did this not show up on my dashboard/reader?!
They look astounding.
Hello again;)
I’ve made them with honey (instead of sugar) and they turned out absolutely fantastic. I used only 3 teaspoons of honey and for my taste that is just enough. Beside this I used 200 grams of almonds and 50 grams of hazelnuts (cos I ran out of almonds) and raisins soaked in Cointreau (well, I coulnd’t help myself). I am amazed by the outcome and of course eternally grateful for this recipe. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
Your writing is very persuasive :-) You could convince me to eat arsenic with the way you write. The pictures do not hurt the cause either.
These look amazing! Can’t wait to try them.
Deeeeelicious! Just made them tonight, a big hit.
You should specify FRESH bananas, though. I think mine were a little beyond ripe and, as a result, the muffins took something like 80mins to cook, rather than 35. Or maybe they were just too big. In any event, the banana variable needs watching.
Thanks for such a great recipe!
Oh, and by my reckoning, this recipe divided into 12 muffins comes out to about 190 calories per muffin, which is a pretty great snack.
I absolutely love this idea. Using the almond flour with bananas makes so much sense. I would even consider mixing in some ground walnuts too. I couldn’t think of a more perfect snack that errs on the healthy side too!
Sean – Thanks for the comment and you bring up a good point about the bake time varying depending on ripeness and size of you bananas. I always use ripe (lightly spotted) bananas and have found that around 40 minutes is a pretty reliable time. Makes sense that it takes longer the more ripe the banana. (I will make a note in the recipe) At 80 minutes though, yours must have been very ripe and very big. Glad it worked out though!
I do like a big banana.
Those are just the prettiest muffins ever. And they’re genius. I love the use of almond meal in place of flour and the chocolate-y center. And the bananas and almonds and sea salt on top.
Just made these delicious muffins with the chocolate center. Delicious ;)
These muffins look divine! I love the recipe and the way they look with the banana slice and almonds on top.
Delicious!
These do look absolutely delicious and almonds and bananas go so well together. Thanks for sharing this recipe, I will be sure to get my wife to make some soon.
Yum! These look great. Bananas are so expensive at the moment, I’m thinking I might give these a try with apple instead.
Hi there. A friend actually tried the recipe with apples and it really didn’t come out so great. Are bananas really more expensive where you are?
These are delicious! I enjoyed a warm muffin fresh from the oven and loved the addition of coarse sea salt. I followed the recipe except I only used one egg and they still turned out great! I will make these again for sure.
These look amazing, and I can’t believe how healthy they are! Can’t wait to try :)
OH MY GOODNESS! These look AMAZING!
I just finished making this as bread. I used 2 tablespoons of agave, and added walnuts & raisins. I could have baked it a little longer as it is slightly moist in the middle, but the cake tester came out clean. It is delicious. I couldn’t wait for it to completely cool, I had to try a piece still warm. It could use a bit more sweetness but it is still delicious. Thank you for this recipe. It is definitely a keeper!
Oh yum!! These look so delicious! and I am always looking for healthy muffin recipes! Bananas have been so expensive in Australia since we had our cyclone, but I bought a whole lot at a reasonable price from a local farmer so this will be fab to use up any extra! Your blog and photos are absolutely beautiful by the way…
Yum. Just out of the oven. Couldn’t wait to take a bite. They are awesome. Had your recipe bookmarked from TasteSpotting and finally was able to save up some bananas to give it a try. Why did I wait so long. Printing your recipe to ensure I have it for the next batch of bananas. So good. Thank you.
Lovely recipe!! I’d love to give it a whirl and I’m wondering if the ounce measurements are by weight or volume? Is 9oz a little over a pound or a little more than a cup?
Thanks!
By volume. So yes, a little over a cup ;)
This recipe looks amazing! So glad to find your blog too.
like Jasmine I am in Australia too and bananas are RIDICULOUSLY priced!
i swallowed the $12 a kg price tag and just went ahead with it minus the chocolatey centre, they were AMAZING and so so so easy
will definitely make again, luckily though we have a friend whose folks own an organic banana farm, might just have to snag a few off them :)
Any idea of a carb count on these?
Nope, no carb count, sorry.
Hi! What a beautiful treat, I’ve already copied the recipe and will be shopping for the ingredients tonight. They’ll be a special birthday treat for my mother tomorrow!
I have one question though: how many muffins does this recipe make?
Thank you!
Hello Marina,
Should make about 9 muffins for ya.
This look incredible. I follow a vegan, gluten-free diet, and am so happy to have found this recipe! Hopefully flax will be a sufficient egg replacer.
And by this, I mean these. Geeeeeeeze.
I love bananas and often buy the over-ripe ones from Winn Dixie. I definitely will try this recipe because it looks delicious
Just made these. They are awesome.
These are amazing! Just made them… the sea salt makes it!
These muffins look SO good!!! I love how you’ve used almond meal and the banana slices on top make it look even more delicious. I’m bookmarking this to give it a try.
These are absolutely amazing!! I could eat them all myself in just 2 days :)
Thanks for the great recipe. Have you ever tried subsituting pumpkin for the banana?
Linda
these look SO delicious, I love a good banana muffin, cna’t wait to try them.
I substituted the sugar for a drizzle of agave nectar, added a dash of vanilla essence, and also shook some chia and pumpkin seeds and cacao nibs in. Yum!
Cooking them right now can’t wait to taste them. I am an athlete so I have to maintain a healthy body so they are perfect.
Yum. These are so decadently delicious!
These look absolutely amazing!! Found this through pinterest :) I love cooking with almond and coconut flour, so this is right up my alley! I think will sub out the sugar for stevia when I make them. Going to check out your other recipes!
I’ll be trying this tonight! Probably will post them up on my blog too. Thanks xx
I, too, wonder about substituting pumpkin or something else that is low carb for the bananas. Does anyone have any other ideas for substitutions?
Just made these and they are amazing-thanks! And love the vintage Pyrex :)
Hi Donna,
Pumpkin does actually sound very good and I’m sure it would work. Maybe baked apples would be nice too.
oh! wow! just made these today (w coconut palm sugar) and they made my day!! they were sooo delicious, exceptionally pretty and gone in a matter of minutes. thank you for this recipe – they’ll definitely become a favourite around here – especially when having guests over that are skeptical to the whole real food/no-white-flour thing. the chocolatey centre is such a great touch!
oh, and the sea salt! loved it!
Does anyone know how much honey to use in substitute for sugar? Thanks, I am enjoying learning to cook low carb!
Is this recipe for a dozen (no.5) muffins?
Shari,
Sorry, but I am not familiar with what no.5 muffins are. I used a standard muffin pan that makes a dozen muffins. Hope that helps.
I have made these muffins twice and my husband and I absolutely love them. They are so moist and flavorful! The only thing I would say is that mine seem to fall apart when I take them out of the muffin tin. Any suggestions on making them more firm?
Thanks
OMG! Saw these muffins today when searching for recipes with almond flour. Have to make them. They are in the over baking and I can’t wait to try them.
They look so pretty! LOVE LOVE LOVE the salt on top!
I just made these and can’t wait for them to cool so I can try one. @Jennifer, I did figure out the nutrition info and the carb count is 18.7 g, but I didn’t add the cocoa powder, which would add a negligible amount.
I use this website: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php to figure out nutrition info for most recipes.
Recipe Makes 12 Muffins
Serving Size: 1 muffin
Amount Per Serving
Calories 188Calories from Fat 102
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11.3g
Saturated Fat 1.1g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 31mg
Sodium 50mg
Total Carbohydrates 18.7g
Dietary Fiber 3.4g
Sugars 11.6g
Protein 5.8g
Vitamin A 1%
Vitamin C 4%
Calcium 7%
Iron 6%
Made these last night in cake form (swirled in the chocolate portion like a marble cake) in a 8 X 8 pan. Did not use sugar. Used 3 T xylitol and 2 T raw, organic honey. For the top, I did banana slices, pecans and extra (63%) dark chocolate chips. SO good, moist, delicious! Great recipe!
Hi, Your recipe looks great! I can’t wait to try. I also enjoy reading so many of the comments. My question, Can I use whole almonds in this recipe or is it best with sliced?
Thanks!
Jenn
Is this suitable for prediabetics and diabetics?
Recipe looks lovely and I like the idea from Jennifer of swapping out sugar for xylitol and honey.
wow, these look SO delicious! very original recipe too. i’m definitely gonna have to try these soon. :)
I have copied your recipe and made it egg less. I am posting it here. Hope that is okay with you do check it out. Its a delicious recipe and I enjoyed it thanks.
Hi there,
Used this recipe to make my daughter’s 1st birthday cake (she’s not eating dairy or wheat yet) – worked a treat and she scoffed it!!!
Thanks so much, I’m definitely writing this one down!!
xx
Made these and def a “hit”…. Put a little less sugar than the recipe and also added slivered almonds on the top….mmmmm delicious!
Thanks for this recipe! My 20 month old loves them! I made them once, with your suggested amounts of pre-made almond meal, but despite my best efforts to grease and flour my muffin tins, they stuck terribly. (Salvaged for the baby, who eats small pieces anyway, but..) Any way to guarantee a more sturdy, less sticky muffin?
Thanks!
p.s. I bought whole roasted almonds, instead of sliced. Can I process those?
LOVE these!! linking back to this healthy muffin tomorrow :)
Perfect! I’ve made these a few times now, always without sugar. There is no need for it, especially if you use really ripe bananas. I did add some currants, though. And walnut pieces for an occasional crunch. I’ve also made them vegan before by substituting the flax/water mixture mentioned by someone else here. Thank you!!
fantastic recipe! i made a dozen muffins and they took about 45 minutes to bake. they are super moist and the only thing i changed was to add 1/2 tsp vanilla to the batter. thanks for sharing!
I stumbled on your lovely blog tonight while researching grain-free recipes (I realize the baking powder makes it not-quite-grain-free but I had to try it anyways ;) I halved the recipe and subbed honey for the sugar, mixed in some finely chopped walnuts and put a few dark chocolate chips onto the top of each muffin along with the banana slices – oh my golly, so yummy. They fall apart pretty easily but it’s no big deal, they are moist and fluffy and the flavours are wonderful. I find it interesting that half the recipe still made 9 muffins, maybe it’s because I used electric beaters instead of a food processor? It made a really light and fluffy batter, which was great. I had almond flour on hand so it was really handy to see measurements for that in the comments. Anyways just wanted to say thank-you :) Looking forward to exploring the rest of your recipes!
I made these a few days ago but instead of making almond meal, I used 2 3/4 cups of almond flour (9 oz came out to be this amount). The muffins were amazingly moist – almost like steamed cakes. I really loved them. However, I wondered if I did something wrong because they did not look anything like the ones in your photos. Perhaps I didn’t bake long enough because they weren’t browned on top but were very moist & just lovely from inside.
Could you include cup measures for all the ingredients? Or at least the almond flour – I have bags and bags of almond flour on hand all the time but I find it frustrating to figure out how much 1 cup of whole almonds, for e.g., would be when ground.
Thanks !
I tried this recipe recently and really liked it! I love the chocolate bit on the inside especially, really fun. However, I used almond flour, with the 2 1/4″ cups suggestion and I think that may be a bit off; the muffins basically fell apart. However, they were still delicious and I gobbled them up, albeit in pieces. I tried it again, except this time I added an additional egg as a binder and it was perfect! Looking at a few comments, it looks as if a few people thought that the muffins were falling apart when you used almond flour, so my suggestion is either to use a bit less (maybe 1 1/2 cups?) or just throw another egg into the mix. Delicious either way, thank you for the recipe! Super yummy and super fun :D
Hi there, these look delicious, but wondering if I was to use almond meal, how many cups would I use? Thanks for such a wonderful resource for beautiful, healthy food!
Hi Rebecca, You’d use the same amount of almond meal actually. Good luck!