These coconut flour banana muffins are soft and moist with a sweet banana finish and a hint of cinnamon. These muffins are also paleo and easy to make!
For some reason, this whole quarantine has got me obsessed with bananas. Don't get me wrong, I didn't have anything against bananas before, but they weren't something on my weekly grocery rotation.
Now? I can't get enough!
I'm using them in my smoothies, I'm enjoying them on top of rice cakes with almond butter, and I'm baking with them. Like A LOT! And after many tests, I'm so excited to share my new favorite way to use ripe bananas: Coconut Flour Banana Muffins!
Ways to Use Ripe Bananas
I think it would be fun to kick this post off by sharing some of my favorite ways to use ripe bananas. If you are also on a banana baking kick, here are some of my favorite recipes:
- Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- Banana Bread Granola
- Tahini Banana Breakfast Cookies
- Banana Blueberry Crumble
Plus, there are a million other ways too! Pretty soon we'll have a whole page that shares our favorite recipes to use bananas!
Tricks for Baking with Coconut Flour
Now, let's talk about these coconut flour banana muffins. First and foremost, coconut flour is a tricky flour. It's SUPER absorbent, but without any binding properties, so it sucks up a ton of liquid but is also crumbly.
Which is why it's so important to use eggs when you're baking with coconut flour. You'll notice we're using a lot of eggs here and that's precisely why. We need the eggs to provide structure, to help bind the rest of the ingredients together, while also adding moisture. They're truly the key to working with coconut flour!
Ingredients in Coconut Flour Muffins
Let's take a quick recap of the ingredients we're using today. Obviously, our base is coconut flour, but I also wanted to make sure that these muffins were also paleo and used as little sugar as possible. We've got just 1/4 cup of maple syrup in the whole recipe!
Here's what you'll find inside these coconut flour banana muffins:
- Mashed banana – the riper the better
- Maple syrup – feel free to swap honey if you want
- Eggs – yep, you read that right we're using four eggs in this recipe!
- Olive oil – optional, but adds a bit more moisture
- Apple cider vinegar – to help activate the baking soda and provide rise to our muffins
- Coconut flour – we've got just 1/2 cup for this entire recipe, but trust me it expands!
- Arrowroot starch – to give the muffins some lightness
And then we're stirring in some cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. The final addition is pecans, which add a really nice crunch but are totally optional.
How to Make Coconut Flour Banana Muffins
These muffins are pretty straightforward to make! They use just one bowl and take about 30 minutes from start to finish.
STEP ONE
I like to start by beating together the wet ingredients. Make sure that your eggs are as fully mixed as possible – we don't want any of the whites floating around in clumps.
STEP TWO
From there you can mix in your dry ingredients. If you use an electric mixer you'll have a better time getting it all incorporated, but a spatula or wooden spoon will also work. The final step is to fold in some pecans – optional but worth it!
STEP THREE
Bake them up! This recipe makes about 10 large muffins, but if you're cool with them being just a teeny bit smaller, you can totally make a dozen.
Tips for Storing Muffins
Once you've got your muffins baked up, you might not feel like you can eat them all right away. Let me share just a few tips on how to store these muffins.
- You can keep them on the counter in a sealed container for a few days. They should stay pretty moist and tender, but if they feel a tiny bit dry, just pop them in the microwave for about 10 seconds.
- Anything longer than a few days, freeze them! Muffins are totally freezer-friendly and these ones actually freeze beautifully. I just keep them in a ziplock bag in my freezer and pop them into the microwave for 20 seconds when I want to eat one.
I wouldn't really recommend keeping these in the fridge because I think they'll dry out. At that point, you might as well just freeze them!
Substitution Questions for Coconut Flour Muffins
Before I let you go, let me just tackle a few of the questions that might come up around these muffins.
- Can you substitute the eggs? The answer, unfortunately, is no. Coconut flour relies heavily on the structure of eggs and if you leave them out, these muffins won't rise and won't bake up properly.
- Can you substitute banana? Sure! If you're not a banana fan/are allergic to banana, any other fruit puree would work. I have a coconut flour pumpkin bread which I actually based this recipe off, that could totally be turned into muffins.
- Can you substitute another flour? The answer again for this one is a no. Coconut flour is incredibly unique and has completely different properties than other flours. Without some major substitutions and quantity changes, these muffins won't work with another flour.
Do you have any more questions for me? If so, drop them down in the comments! Otherwise, that pretty much does it for our banana coconut flour muffins! I hope you love them ❤️
More Gluten-Free Muffins to try:
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Banana Bread Muffins
- Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Skinny Raspberry Chocolate Chip Quinoa Muffins
- Healthy Honey Applesauce Blender Muffins
Coconut Flour Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed banana
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (or melted coconut oil)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup arrowroot starch
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans (plus more for topping)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray the tins with non-stick cooking spray, or grease with oil.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the banana, eggs, syrup, oil and vinegar. Beat until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and stir until a smooth batter forms. Allow batter to rest for 5 minutes. Fold in the pecans.
- Fill each muffin cup almost full and top with additional pecans (if desired). Bake in the center of the oven for 23 - 25 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before enjoying.
- Serve slightly reheated in the toaster oven with your favorite nut butter or buttery spread!
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Nutrition
Hey, what is the white cream on top in the photo?
Coconut yogurt!
Can I use cornflour starch instead of arrowroot. I,m really
looking out for. Coconut flour recipes so I am excited to try this. I am in the UK.
Thank and regards
Jemma
Definitely!
I do not want sweetener in my banana bread! If the bananas are really ripe they are really sweet. How do I use this recipe without any sweetener?
You can omit the maple syrup! Maybe add a touch more banana if you plan on leaving it out.
My kids cannot have ACV, what would you recommend for replacing that in this recipe?
You could try another vinegar (rice, white) or use lemon juice!
Can I leave the starch out all together? I don’t have that kind of starch and I don’t want to use corn starch as I’m on a low carb diet.
I haven’t tried them without the starch, but I think that should be okay! Maybe if you increase some of the other ingredients by a little bit?
I made these for breakfast today and they were great. To spare myself in the morning and save time, I mixed all wet ingredients except for vinegar and left the mixture in the fridge overnight. I also mixed the dry ingredients, so in the morning things were easy. I even lined the muffin pan at night so all was ready. My kids got fresh, home made muffins before school. How spoiled are they?!
Wow! I would love coming home to fresh muffins 🙂
These are such a tasty treat. Super moist and great flavor. I added mini chocolate chips and they were outstanding.
Love the addition of chocolate 🙂
Just made these and – SO good! so light and just sweet enough. I used corn starch & it worked great.
What brand(s) of coconut yogurt do you like to use?
Yay! I use Coyo or Culina! 🙂
These were great! So fluffy and I love banana muffins so much! The pecans on top are incredible too!
YAY! So happy you enjoyed them!!
Hello
Thank you for the nice recept, I really want to try baking this. I would like to leave out the maple syrup though, because I am very sensitive to all sugars. Banana works though, can I add extra banana the same amount as maple syrup do you think, or something else that resplaces the moisturising effect of the maple syrup? I also wonder, I live in Sweden and I have only seen one type of bakingpowder here, is it ok to use only that in same amount as the two bakingpowders you use?
Greetings from Sweden! /Elin
I think you could try that, yes! Let me know if it works 🙂 Baking powder and soda are different here. Do you have bicarbonate soda in Sweden? I just googled it and it’s called, “bikarbonat”! xx
Absolutely love these muffins- they are so moist and tasty. Will definitely make these again. Thank you for this recipe.
So happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Can you muffin liners vs oiling the muffin pan?
You can, yes! But the ones I’ve tried have stuck more with the paper lines.
I used muffin liners (the brown, more environmentally friendly ones)and they were super easy to peal.
Oh good!! I’ve always had trouble with the liners, so I’m glad they worked for you 🙂
These muffins are so flavorful and moist!! I made mini muffins vs regular size muffins, thanks for the recipe!!!
So glad you enjoyed them!
Lovely ,everyone in the family enjoyed them ! Used rice malt syrup as had no maple 😀👍
Awesome! So glad to hear that 🙂
Can you substitute arrowroot with corn starch?
Totally!
These muffins looks so delicious! Can I substitute arrowroot starch flour with rice flour?
I haven’t tested! But I think another starch would be the best bet 🙂
What can you substitute arrowroot starch flour with?
Cornstarch, tapioca starch or potato starch all work well 🙂
So good! Ran out of maple syrup but used a mixture of corn and honey.
Perfectly moist but did not rise as much as I expected! Otherwise, super delicious gluten free option!
YUMMMM!!
Tried this and turned out great!
Awesome!
These muffins were delicious! So light and moist and tasty. I used cornflour as I had no arrowroot
I’m so glad you liked them!! Would love for you to leave a star rating if you have a moment 🙂 xox
Can I substitute arrorwroot starch for cornflour?
Cornstarch would be the best thing to use 🙂
What’s the frosting on top the muffin (seen in picture) and recipe? It looks scrumptious!
Coconut yogurt!
Looks delish! I’d like to know more about that yummy frosting on top. Recipe? 🙂
It’s coconut yogurt!
Thank you for sharing your recipe. What topping is on your banana muffin in the photo?
Coconut yogurt 🙂
I really wanted to try these but see they have eggs (dairy/egg allergies here). Is there really no way to veganize these? :/ Would chia/flax eggs work with the coconut flour? Thanks!
Hi! I’m sorry but I really don’t think they would work without eggs. You could try a different recipe 🙂 https://www.simplyquinoa.com/skinny-strawberry-banana-oatmeal-muffins/ this one is great!
Do you think adding fresh strawberries would work okay with this recipe?
Yea! I think cut them little though so they don’t get too soggy 🙂
Just made these and they are awesome, thank you! Even my 15 year old son (who doesn’t like a lot of gluten free food) loves them! I used corn starch since I didn’t have the arrowroot starch and they were great.
Amazing! I just made another batch – I can’t stop eating them 🙂
Can I substitute the arrowroot starch for potato starch?
Totally!
Hay what can I add instead of arrowroot starch?
Corn, potato or tapioca!
Hello! Can I substitute the arrowroot starch with something else?? Thanks 🙂
Hi! Tapioca, corn or potato 🙂
Any substitutions for arrowroot starch?
Thank you!
Hey! Tapioca, corn or potato 🙂