I love carbs. Every time I’m in proximity to a bakery my “carb-radar” goes off, and the smell of fresh baked goods lures me in. Since I changed my diet (read more about that here) I’ve had to stay away from baked goods loaded with butter and eggs. To satisfy my carb craving, I set out on a mission to create a muffin that would allow me to sink my teeth into a steaming hot, fresh-baked snack! And ladies and gentle, this is the result!
I started with my of my old banana bread recipes as the foundation and substituted coconut oil for butter, flax seed for eggs, organic cane sugar for refined sugar, and whole wheat flour and oats in place of white flour. The result were these fluffy mini muffins that taste and smell amazing!
I chose to use a mini muffin tin because I like being able to choose whether I want the two-bite mini muffins, or whether I want to eat 3 in one sitting to get the equivalent of a larger muffin. I got my mini muffin quite a few years back from Pampered chef, but you can still get the same one here.
I grease my muffin pans with coconut oil spray (I live right on the Canada/US border, so I get mine from Trader Joe’s) and my muffins pop right out! I’ve started making a double batch of these because my brothers, who are living with us right now, eat them right up!
I avoid gluten as much as possible in my diet, but I occasionally eat whole wheat flour and whole grains. I make these muffins with whole wheat flour, but you could easily sub it for a gluten-free blend if you’re completely gluten-free.
Hope you enjoy as much as we do! Let me know how they turn out! My next goal is to master vegan scones!!
- 3 over-ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup of melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup raw cane sugar
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax seed + 3 tbsp water)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (or sub your favourite all purpose gluten-free blend)
- 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease mini muffin tin.
- In a small bowl mix together flax egg and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Mash bananas in a medium sized bowl.
- Add coconut oil, cane sugar, vanilla and flax egg to the mashed bananas.
- Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the top of the banana mixture.
- Gently stir in flour and oats.
- Add mixture to greased muffin pan. Fill until level so that your muffins rise above the top of the pan.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the muffins begin to brown along the edges.
- Enjoy!
My favourite source for recipes these day is the Minimalist Baker – http://minimalistbaker.com. John and Dana, a husband and wife team are the creators of the recipes on this site. All of their recipes require 10 ingredients or less, one bowl, or 30 minutes or less to prepare. While they aren’t strictly vegan or gluten free, many of the recipes are special diet-friendly. I love the simplicity of their recipes and I’ve grown to trust that I’m going to get great tasting food from them!
I also love Love and Lemons – loveandlemons.com. Jeanine is the creator and voice behind the blog and while she’s also not entirely gluten-free or vegan, most of the recipes are the blog are vegetarian. You can find our favourite vegan waffle recipe on her site here and a delicious APlle Cardamom Oat Crumble 
And of course, probably one of the most well know vegan blogs around right now is Oh She Glows – ohsheglows.com. In addition to great vegan recipes, many of her recipes are also gluten-free. Angela Liddon is the face behind this blog, which she originally started to share about her recovery from an eating disorder and her journey towards health. I absolutely love her cookbook and her recipes are almost always delicious. You can find one of my favourite cookie recipes, Trail Mix Cookies, here and an easy Carrot Ginger Soup recipe 
