“If you don’t know, now ya know…” that… that banana flour is the bee’s knees. I know, not the way you expected that phrase to end, but this newly found flour has got me fucked up.

Let me just outright say that it’s the closest in similarity to all-purpose flour I’ve found thus far. In baked goods, it’s light, slightly chewy (a quality similar to gluten), sturdy, soft, and not crumbly. It contains a mild flavor, but not strong enough to overwhelm the overall flavor of its pastry. It sifts easily, similar to pastry flour, and when mixed with a touch of xanthan gum, is a bit stronger, like bread flour. In 2017, I baked predominately with cassava and sorghum flours – which I will, no doubt, return to time & time again – but I can tell that my relationship with green banana flour is about to flourish far beyond the stretches of this honey moon phase.

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I discovered green banana flour via our incredible sponsor, Edward & Sons, who sent us a bag of the stuff the first time they ever sent us a care package. I experimented with it breifly, creating these purple sesame muffins, yet allowed it to sink to the bottom of my focus for some reason I’m now kicking myself in the foot for. If only I would’ve known what green banana flour is capable of, cakes & other pastries could’ve been even more irresistibly light, fluffy, and moist. Sorry, I should be looking forward, not back at what could’ve been; new year, better pastries.

As you can probably guess, green banana flour is made via drying and finely grinding up unripe bananas. Before bananas turn yellow, their sugars lay dormant as resistant starches, which is good news for your gut buddies, metabolism, and baking. Honestly, I can’t tell you why green banana flour works so well, I can only atest to the fact that it does. I know saying that makes me sound like a shady drug dealer – “trust me man, this that real good stuff” – but upon tasting a pastry made with this flour, I think you’ll empathize with my passion.

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In fact, in the past I’ve often used every technique possible – such as using whipped aquafaba, baking soda + vinegar, and sifting – in order to lighten my pastries, which helps, but doesn’t make them feel deceivingly free of gluten. In this case, however, I implemented two of the aforementioned techniques and the result was so light & fluffy that these muffins are darn near cupcakes! Albeit, because they’re made via the muffin method, I’m still calling them muffins.

The flavors here are simple: rich chocolate & toasted coconut. These are perfect breakfast muffins, because they’re delicious and nutritious. Don’t believe me? These muffins are full of resistant starches, healthy saturated fats from coconut oil, antioxidant-rich cocoa (as long as you use cocoa not processed with alkali), and they won’t spike your glucose levels because they’re sweetened with erythritol and stevia.

All in all, these muffins are fluffy, moist, decadent, and toasty. If you like what your taste buds are tellin’ ya, leave behind a nice rating, share your thoughts with us in the comments, or show us your creations by tagging @noeggsorham on Instagram.

Go Forth & Devour,
Ryan & Kim

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Coconut Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

  • Servings: 5-9 muffins (depending on the size of your tins)
  • Difficulty: Moderate
  • Print

Ridiculously light & fluffy muffins made from green banana flour - a.k.a. the best alternative to all-purpose flour I've found to date.

Ingredients

Dry

Wet

  • 90 g (1/4 c +2 tbsp) melted butter flavored coconut oil or coconut oil
  • 72 g (1/4 c + 2 tbsp) erythritol
  • 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal + 2.5 tbsp water)
  • 8 oz (1 c) light coconut milk
  • 3 oz (1/4 c + 2 tbsp) aquafaba from a can of Eden’s Chickpeas*
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp liquid stevia extract

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Line muffin tin with liners or lightly coat with coconut oil non-stick spray. For tall-muffin liners, prepare 5-6 tins, for regular-sized liners, prepare 7-8 tins. Set aside.
  2. When the oven reaches its designated temperature, spread out shredded coconut onto a baking sheet and place in oven for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Remove & set aside.
  3. Sift the green banana flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder into a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
  4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flax eggs and melted butter until cohesive. Whisk in vanilla extract, erythritol, stevia, and coconut milk. Set aside.
  5. In the bowl of your stand-up mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a medium glass or plastic bowl with an electric hand whisk, beat the aquafaba on high until stiff peaks form; 6-8 minutes.
  6. Pour the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients and stir to combine with a wooden spoon. Stir in half of the aquafaba until no longer visible. Then, gently fold in the second half of aqauafaba, leaving a few white spots in-tact.
  7. Fill each muffin tin 4/5 of the way full with batter. Place in the center rack of your oven and bake until the edges are set but the middle is still slightly jiggly; a toothpick inserted into the middle should come out mostly clean.
  8. Note: Because we baked our muffins in tall muffin liners, we had to bake our muffins for 30 minutes, however, if you are baking in regular sized muffin tins, I would check them after 20 minutes.
  9. Allow muffins to cool in pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove them from the pan and set directly on the rack to cool the rest of the way; at least 20 more minutes.
  10. Best when enjoyed same-day as baking, but they can be kept in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to two days.

*Eden pressure-cooks their beans in the cans, thus making them lectin-free. And no, we ain’t sponsored by them (not yet, at least).

10 thoughts on “ Coconut Chocolate Breakfast Muffins (grain-free, vegan, sugar-free, & Plant-Paradox friendly) ”

  1. Pingback: Ingredient Insight: Green Banana Flour, Aquafaba, Erythritol, & Xanthan Gum

  2. I’ve never tried baking with banana flour before, though I’ve seen it in stores before. Banana and chocolate pair so well together, so I’m sure these muffins are delicious :)

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  4. Coconut chocolate is awesome combination! Now I do have some coconut flour, would this wort just as fine as the dried banana flour?

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    1. Hey Enrico!

      While I haven’t baked with coconut flour much, I don’t think it can be substituted for banana flour 1:1. Reason being is that coconut flour absorbs more moisture than banana flour does, so less of it has to be used in order to achieve a similar consistency. And, green banana flour is very fine while coconut flour is a little bit more gritty, like cornflour.

      If you want to go ahead and try it anyways though, I would start off by using only 1/3 c of coconut flour in place of the 1 cup of banana flour. Then, if the consistency is watery, add another 1/3 c of coconut flour, and stir it in until the consistency is thick but still thin enough to move about the bowl freely, like a batter.

      If you try it, let me know! I’d love to hear about your results.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  5. Pingback: Vegan Coconut Chocolate Breakfast Muffins – Edward & Sons Recipe Blog

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