Gluten-Free & Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Banana bread has been my favorite breakfast bread since I was a kid. My mom used to make big loaves of it for us, and I remember being so excited to come down for breakfast in the morning if I knew there was banana bread waiting for me. All of my siblings and I still make banana bread for our families and all of our kids love it too. I was making it for Hudson until we had to cut out gluten a couple years ago. Making vegan banana bread was no problem when he could still have wheat - the problem was removing the gluten (protein structure of the muffin) and then also removing the eggs (protein structure and binder of most gluten-free products). Suddenly I had a bread that caved down in the middle and never seemed to really cook through completely. To be honest, Hudson will eat just about any baked good - regardless of if it was a successful kitchen experiment. I love that about him. He always makes me feel like my kitchen skills are top-notch. But, there have been some baked goods that come out of our oven that even I can't bring myself to take a second bite of. Banana bread was one of them. All of the "regular" recipes that I found and tweaked to meet our allergy needs left much to be desired. I wanted a muffin that actually rose above the muffin liner, instead of caving down inside of itself, cooked all the way through, and had a soft muffin-like crumb on the inside, instead of a gummy texture you sometimes get from egg substitutes. I finally went to work on a new recipe that could bring banana muffins back onto our breakfast menus and this is it. They were even a hit with neighbors who don't eat gluten-free or vegan!

These rise so well, even without baking powder (we are still keeping it corn-free around here!), and have all the goodness of traditional banana bread. As soon as we tried these, I immediately made another batch and threw them all in the freezer. You can never have enough muffins, cookies, and bread in the freezer if you're a food allergy family, or if you're just a busy family on the go all the time! They freeze beautifully and defrost easily on the counter or zapped in the microwave for a few seconds.

Feel free to switch the recipe up a little too! We are nut-free in this house, but if you are not, some chopped nuts would be great in this recipe. You can also add in other fun ingredients like shredded coconut or remove the chocolate chips if you'd like (this will make it refined-sugar free too). Hope your family loves these as much as mine does. Happy baking!

Prep Time: 15 minutes Bake Time: 30 minutes Yields: 10 muffins

INGREDIENTS:

3 large ripe bananas

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup rice milk (any other milk substitute will work here)

⅔ cup coconut sugar

½ Tbsp psyllium husk

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ cups gluten-free flour blend (I use King Arthur gluten-free flour)

½ cup oat flour

¼ cup chocolate chips

avocado oil for spraying muffin liners (any other neutral oil will work)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Line a muffin pan with muffin liners and spray with cooking oil to prevent sticking.

2. Mash bananas in mixing bowl with a fork or the whisk attachment on the stand mixer. Add baking soda to bananas and beat on medium until fully combined.

3. Add vanilla extract, rice milk, and coconut sugar to bananas and beat on medium-low speed to stir together.

4. While mixer is going, slowly sprinkle psyllium husk powder into the wet mixture and continue to beat for 30 seconds afterward to prevent psyllium husk from clumping.

5. In a separate medium bowl add gluten-free flour, oat flour, cinnamon, and salt. Stir together.

6. With mixer running on low, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add chocolate chips and beat again until fully incorporated into batter.

7. Fill muffin liners just below the top and bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe Notes:

1. A flax egg can be substituted for the psyllium husk, but may result in a flatter muffin. A chicken egg may also be used in the place of psyllium husk if there is no egg allergy.

2. Chocolate chips may be omitted completely if desired and other fruits or nuts added in instead, if tolerated.

3. Brown sugar can be substituted for coconut sugar to keep these top 8 free.