Paleo Chocolate Banana Muffins

These chocolate banana muffins are only my second foray into baking since I have gone gluten-free, processed sugar-free and dairy-free, and I am quite pleased with how they turned out. Most of the gluten-free recipes use a lot of eggs, and I subbed out a couple of eggs for some of my home-made pear sauce (which is like applesauce, only... pears). It is unsweetened, so also really healthy.

To me, these muffins taste like Candy. With a capital C. So good. But I will warn you that Mike, who still eats processed sugar said that they are not as sweet as he would normally like. So keep that in mind as you are making them. If you like things really super-sweet and are used to the taste of processed sugar, you might want to add some additional sweetener. Or frost them. Or something.

I blended the wet ingredients together. This was about 1 cup of mashed banana (2-3 bananas should do the trick), my homemade pear sauce, an egg, and some vanilla extract.

Then I mixed together the wet ingredients: almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, and evaporated cane juice (or some other sweetener). If you use honey, mix it in with the wet ingredients.

Mix the two together and they come out looking like this. Don't over-mix, just until combined.

Seriously, doesn't that look good?

And then I mixed in some chocolate chunks. My favorite brand is the Enjoy Life. They are gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free, and use evaporated cane juice as a sugar replacement.

The recipe makes 9 normal size muffins. Meaning that these are not mini-muffins. Nor are they the gigantic muffins at your local coffee shop. They are plain, normal muffins made in a plain, normal muffin tin. And I like it that way.

I took a close-up of this one because you can see a tiny chunk of banana peaking out of the chocolate-y goodness.

If you heat them for about 10-15 seconds in the microwave before eating, they get all warm and gooey inside. That is assuming they last long enough out of the oven for you to need to reheat them, that is.

These muffins only have about 100 calories per muffin, and make a great snack or breakfast muffin. Or dessert. Or lunch... 

Paleo Chocolate Banana Muffins

Makes 9 muffins

Ingredients:

1 egg

1/4 cup evaporated cane juice, or some other sweetener

1/3 cup pear sauce (unsweetened applesauce would work well, too)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup mashed bananas (about 2-3 bananas)

1 cup almond flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)

1/2 cup gluten-free Chocolate chips 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a standard muffin tin. This recipe should make 9 muffins. 

Whisk together the wet ingredients (banana, pear sauce, vanilla, and egg). In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (sweetener, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder). Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing as you go. Mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool in the muffin tin for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a plate or rack to continue cooling. Or just eat them, like I did.