Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Muffins (Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Nut-Free)

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I am a self-admitted carboholic and sugar addict. Which makes cutting out gluten and refined sugar incredibly painful (however, even more necessary.) Now, while these are a better option, they are most certainly not without the sugar… I’ve just swapped the sucrose (“table sugar”) for fructose (“fruit sugar”) which tends to happen a lot in my life. Sugar addict, remember? I’m working on it… When I finally perfected these little beauties, I couldn’t make enough of them. Breakfast: definitely. Snacks: absolutely. Lunch and dinner: admittedly, yes. Birthday parties: gluten-free noms. Wins all around. Noooot that you should eat that many. But it may or may not happen, just fair warning. I seriously cannot say enough about these muffins! If you like banana bread, and are looking for gluten/grain/nut free deliciousness, look no further. Even gluten-loving friends have raved over these muffins, not knowing that they were actually eating goodies made without the bad stuff. Yep, I’ll take that as the highest praise. Moist, but not gooey. Fluffy and risen just like a traditional muffin. Sweet and spicy. The perfect balance between the fruity banana, slighty nutty taste of the sunbutter, spicy cinnamon, and sweet chocolate chip bites. BUT! Don’t take my word for it, whip some up for yourself! I promise they will not disappoint.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Muffins

  • 1 cup mashed banana (approx 2 medium bananas)
  • 3/4 cup sunbutter (or other nut butter)
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 raw, unfiltered honey
  • 2 pasture-raised eggs
  • 1/2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground clove
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • chocolate chips to taste
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners, or coat the muffin tin with coconut oil.
  2. Mash your bananas to a almost smooth pulp (if you like chunks of banana in your banana bread, leave your pulp slightly lumpy.)
  3. Add the sunbutter, honey, eggs, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar to the mashed bananas. Combine until smooth and well-mixed.
  4. To the wet ingredients you just mixed, add the dry ingredients (coconut flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and salt.) Again, combine the mixture until smooth and well-mixed.
  5. Fold in your chocolate chips (as many or as few as you want!)
  6. Fill the muffins cups 3/4 full. (I usually get about 2 Tbsp in each cup)
  7. Place in the pre-heated oven, and bake for 18-21 minutes or until risen, golden, and slightly cracked on top. Be mindful to watch these, they can easily get overly-cooked on the bottoms. I get about 1 dozen muffins from this recipe.

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Snickerdoodle Bites (Gluten-Free, Grain-Free)

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Snickerdoodles are one of my all-time favorite cookies, reason being that I absolutely love cinnamon. When I was younger (okay… maybe even now on occasion) I would sprinkle it straight onto my pancakes and waffles. No cinnamon-sugar combo here. Give me the straight up, real deal stuff and I will put it on just about anything. That being said, I do appreciate the cinnamon-sugar partnership and run with it whenever possible. Enter: Snickerdoodles. In bite form. Chewy on the inside, with that perfect sugar-shell on the outside. “But sugar?” You say, “But, but, I thought no sugar…?” Ah, but you are correct! There is no white sugar in these glorious little nuggets. How is that possible? Coconut palm sugar my friends. Coconut palm sugar comes from coconut flower blossom nectar. This stuff not only makes a perfect 1:1 replacement for white sugar, but is packed with nutrients and is claimed to be low-glycemic, which means it does not spike your blood sugar and leave you in a sugar crash later. According to the back of my specific bag, it has 16 vital amino acids and the nutrients include magnesium, nitrogen, zinc, potassium and calcium. Uh yeah… coconut palm sugar kicks white sugar’s booty. Pair that with the anti-inflammatory effects of cinnamon, and these cookies are a power-packed goldmine. Plus they’re completely addictive in their bite-sized form. I say win-win, right?

Snickerdoodle Bites

  • 1 cup Sunbutter (or any nut butter)
  • 1/3 cup raw, unfiltered honey
  • 2 Tbsp coconut flour
  • 1 Tbsp + 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
  • 1 Tbsp almond flour (use flax meal to make nut-free)
  • 1 egg (free-range is best)
  • 1/2 Tbsp + 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Combine all ingredients, minus the 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar and 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon, in a bowl and mix thoroughly. It may be helpful to first mix dry ingredients, and then add wet ingredients (however, I am lazy and just threw them all in the bowl at once and they worked out fine).
  3. Combine the 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar and 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon in a separate bowl.
  4. Scoop out the dough in 1/2 Tbsp balls. Roll the ball in your hands to create an even shape. I got about 30 dough balls from this recipe.
  5. Place the dough ball into your separate bowl filled with the coconut palm sugar and cinnamon. Roll the ball of dough around in the cinnamon-sugar mixture until evenly and thoroughly covered.
  6. Repeat this process with the rest of your dough.
  7. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper (or grease with coconut oil). Place your dough balls about 1-2 inches apart on your cookie sheets.
  8. Place in your pre-heated oven and let bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cracks form on the tops of the cookies and the bottoms become slightly caramelized and golden brown. Note that these cookies will not spread out much, and will instead stay in bite-sized nuggets.

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