Banana Muffins- Dish #2 in the Breakfast Series

There's nothing quite like a warm, soft muffin for breakfast on a cool fall morning. Or a cool spring morning. Or a hot summer morning. Shoot, there's NO time when a muffin isn't a good idea! Thank the universe for these; made with coconut flour instead of regular flour, they're gluten-free, low-carb, high fiber, and just so dang delicious you'll want to eat them all the time. The other good news: they freeze really well, so you can make a double, triple, or quadruple batch and enjoy them whenever you feel like it!



Banana Muffins

Makes about 10 big muffins or 12 smallish ones

-          1/2 c coconut flour

-          1 tsp ground cinnamon

-          1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (omit if allergic and increase cinnamon to 2 tsp)

-          1/2 tsp baking powder

-          1/2 tsp salt

-          2 medium, very ripe bananas, mashed (~3/4 c)

-          5 eggs

-          4 T unsalted butter or ghee, gently melted

-          1/3 c pure maple syrup (NOT Aunt Jemima!!!) 

-          1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Grease a muffin tin VERY well with butter, ghee, or coconut oil, or use aluminum baking liners. I recommend just greasing the tin since these muffins don’t come out of the paper liners very well, and personal experience has shown that they don’t come out of the aluminum ones very well either. But if you MUST use liners, the aluminum ones are best.
3. Sift the coconut flour, cinnamon, nutmeg (if using), baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Give it a good stir and set it aside for now.
4. In a large bowl, mash the banana with a fork.
5. Crack the eggs into the bowl with the banana, giving each one a brief whisking afterwards. This will get the eggs incorporated into the banana easier than trying to do it all at once.
6. Add the melted butter/ghee, maple syrup, and vanilla extract and mix it together really well.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and give it a good stir, until most of the flour lumps are gone, but don’t overmix it. It’ll be thicker than what you’re used to, but trust me- DON’T try to thin the batter with milk or water or anything like that.  
8. Spoon the batter into the greased muffin tin or cup liners to about 2/3 full, 3/4 if you want larger but fewer muffins.
9. Bake them for 18–22 minutes, until they’re a nice, light golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins is clean when removed.
10. Turn out the muffins and cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve them nice & warm or at room temperature. They’re so moist & soft they don’t even need butter, but I wouldn’t blame you one bit if you slathered them up anyway. =)

Tips:

-          The above recipe can be modified in a number of ways. You can fold in chopped nuts, chocolate chips, shredded coconut, or anything else you feel goes well with banana.

-          You can try these as pumpkin muffins, too!  Swap the banana for 1/2 c of pureed cooked pumpkin, add an egg, and add ¼ tsp. of ground cloves. You can fold nuts into these, or for a fall treat, fold in dried cranberries or chopped apples.
-      These are also great as apple cinnamon muffins: increase the cinnamon to 2 tsp, use 1/2 cup of applesauce instead of banana, decrease to 4 eggs, and fold in peeled, chopped apples (Granny Smiths are great, but I've used Braeburns, Gala, and Fuji, all with success).

Let me know in the comments section how these turn out for you! =)