Almond flour banana muffins are a gluten-free treat that comes together quickly and packs a punch. Bananas, almond flour, walnuts, and dark chocolate chips give these muffins an irresistible flavor and texture.
With each bite, you get extra gooey chocolate chips, crunchy walnuts, and an almost fudgy caramelly interior. Perfect for breakfast on the go, these muffins stay moist for days and can be kept in the fridge or freezer for when you need them.
This recipe is fun to make, especially with kids. When you are making the muffins, have your helpers mash the banana and press some extra chocolate chips into the tops of each muffin. Don’t be surprised if they snag a few extra chocolate chips!
Those chocolate chips go great with a glass of milk, but the muffins’ flavors also stand up to a strong tea or cup of coffee.
What You Need to Make Almond Flour Banana Muffins
The key to this recipe is making sure you use ripe or overripe bananas. Underripe bananas will not have the sweetness or the mushiness that we need for this recipe.
When I have overripe bananas on the counter, I often throw them in the freezer for smoothies or banana bread. If you do the same, you can use your frozen bananas here. Just allow them to warm up before you use them.
Ingredients:
- Ripe bananas
- Almond flour
- Dark brown sugar
- Unsalted butter, melted
- Large eggs
- Chopped walnuts
- Dark chocolate chips or chunks
- Baking powder
- Almond extract (optional)
- Kosher salt
Tools:
- Whisk
- Fork
- Muffin tin
- Sieve
- A few mixing bowls
How To Make Almond Flour Banana Muffins
The most critical part of this dish involves sifting the flour. Almond flour has a higher fat content than regular flour and it often clumps. You want to remove any of these clumps to ensure the batter is the right consistency. This will also keep the muffins lighter.
Because we are only using almond flour, these muffins will be denser than traditional muffins. So, sifting your flour helps keep the batter light.
Make the batter: In a bowl, mash 2-3 bananas until they are smooth, resulting in around 1 cup of mashed bananas. Add melted butter, eggs, dark brown sugar, and almond extract and whisk until smooth.
In a separate bowl, mix together baking powder, almond flour, and salt. Sift dry ingredients over wet ingredients and fold the batter until just combined.
Add in walnuts and dark chocolate chips until well distributed, but do not over-mix.
Prepare and fill the baking dish: Line and grease 12 muffin tins, and fill with batter ¾ to the top. These muffins will not rise very much, so you can fill the tins more than you usually would.
Press extra chocolate chips into the top of the muffin.
Bake the muffins: In an oven preheated to 350ºF, bake the muffins for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes back with just a crumb or two. Allow to cool and serve.
Should I toast the nuts?
I often toast nuts to give them a deeper richer flavor when I add them to baked goods, but I do not do this here. I prefer the brighter, lighter flavor of the untoasted walnuts because it contrasts with the caramelly, dark flavors of the chocolate, ripe bananas, and brown sugar.
However, if you prefer to toast your walnuts, place them in an ungreased skillet on medium heat and stir regularly for 2-3 minutes until they just begin to toast and release their aromas.
Can I use almond meal?
I highly recommend using almond flour in this recipe. Almond flour has a very light tan color and has a very fine texture because it is made from blanched and peeled almonds. Almond meal or ground almonds, on the other hand, are made from the whole almond. Because the skins are still on, it will have a coarser texture and darker, more irregular color.
Because the crumb of this muffin is already fairly dense, using almond meal or ground almonds will produce a denser final product. If you only have access to almond meal, try grinding it further in a food processor before adding it to this dish.
Can I use other add-ins?
You can absolutely use other add-ins! You can adapt the flavors of these muffins to whatever you prefer. Coconut, almonds, dried cherries, and toffee chips would all be delicious alternative add-ins. Stick with dry ingredients so as not to add more moisture to this bake.
Almond Flour Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 ripe bananas or around 1 cup mashed
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
- ½ tsp table salt
- ½ tsp almond extract (optional)
- ½ cup walnuts
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- In a bowl, mash 2-3 bananas until smooth.
- Whisk together mashed banana, 2 large eggs,1/3 cup brown sugar, ¼ cup melted unsalted butter, and ½ tsp almond extract until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, mix together 2 cups of almond flour, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 teaspoon baking powder.
- Sift dry ingredients over wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Fold in ½ cup walnuts and 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips until well distributed.
- Line and grease 12 muffin tins.
- Fill each muffin tin ¾ of the way to the top.
- Press the remaining 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips into the tops of the muffins.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out with a few crumbs attached.
- Serve!
Nutrition
Here are a few other recipes you might enjoy!
- 3-Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins
- Banana Oatmeal Pancakes (3 Ingredients)
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
- Banana Crepes
- Gluten-Free Crepes
Arielle is a food and drink photographer based in Washington, D.C. She was previously a social science researcher before she fell in love with photography.