No-Sugar-Added Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Muffins

 

A few nights ago I came home from a really long day at work but still wanted to cook or bake. I made onion smothered chicken and a batch of my ever favorite chocolate chip banana nut muffins. The chicken was fantastic. The muffins were a bit of a crapshoot.

This is a testament to how tired I was--I've made these muffins hundreds of times, and I felt like I was forgetting something. I remembered two minutes after I put them in the oven: I had completely left out sugar! There wasn't much I could do at that point so I just let them bake and figured a little experiment couldn't turn out too terribly...right?

They were in fact a huge success. They came out much lighter and fluffier than my usual muffins (fine, a little mutant looking too), and the chocolate chips and banana itself added just the right amount of sweetness; honestly, if I thought of them as mini banana bread rolls (or almost popovers?), I couldn't find anything wrong with them. In fact, AK liked them better than my original recipe because they are so light and airy.

I guess sometimes mistakes/accidents can reveal great things (it worked for potato chips)...And this really makes me want to experiment with gluten free bread :)

No-Sugar-Added Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Muffins

Ingredients:

4 bananas, pureed
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 + 1/4 cup flour (I used gluten free)
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Combine bananas, eggs, vanilla, and spices.
2. Sift together BP, BS and 1 cup of flour. Stir into wet mixture. Add additional flour as needed (depends on how big your bananas were; you want the batter to be relatively thick). Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips.
3. Divide evenly into a 12-muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees 15-20 minutes until edges are browned and tops are firm and golden.

The cost: $4.00, give or take.

An Adventure in Vegan Baking: Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I've been thinking for a while I'd like to try vegan baking (which mostly means no eggs). Last week when I saw a recipe from my Twitter friend, the Lazy GF Chef, that looked delicious and happened to be vegan, I decided to try it :)

I made a few adaptations: My cocoa looked yucky so I used chocolate chips instead; my vanilla and cinnamon are both very strong so I used half of what the recipe called for (learned from experience on this one); I used a bit less soy milk because my bananas were quite large; I added nuts because I like the texture they add; and I did muffins instead of a loaf because portion (read: self)-control is much easier when I have muffins with finite mass.

These muffins were great--moist and sweet (although a very different flavor with agave rather than sugar, I hadn't baked with agave before as a main sweetener; it also makes these significantly more expensive because agave by volume costs a lot more than sugar does).

Thank you, Lazy GF Chef, for facilitating my vegan baking adventure with your utterly delicious looking chocolate cinnamon banana loaf!

Vegan Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Adapted from The Lazy GF Chef

3 overripe bananas, pureed
1/4 cup light olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup agave
1/4 cup soy milk

pinch of salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup gluten free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Bread Mix)

1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Combine bananas, oil, vanilla, agave and soy milk. In a separate bowl, combine salt, cinnamon, BP., BS and flour. Using a whisk, stir dry ingredients into wet until well mixed.
2. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Divide evenly into greased 12-muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

The cost:
bananas: .57
agave: .75
soy milk: 1.79
flour: 1.25
other ingredients: <1.00

Grand total: $5.36

Dinner Party (5 of 5): Cinnamon Banana Cake w/ Candied Walnuts

I've been remixing this recipe a lot because I love banana muffins/cake, and this recipe has been great in every variation I have tried. As the final course of my dinner party, I wanted something sweet but not too heavy since we had already eaten so much. I used oil here since it's a dessert, but you can also substitute applesauce for a lower fat version.

P.S. In case you missed them, check out the other dinner party recipes here!

Cinnamon Banana Cake w/ Candied Walnuts

Ingredients:

3 overripe bananas, pureed
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp cinnamon
zest and juice of 1 meyer lemon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 + 1/4 cup flour (I used gluten free)
1/4 cup candied walnuts

Directions:

1. Blend bananas, eggs, oil, sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon zest and juice.
2. Sift together BP, BS and flour. Stir into wet mixture. Fold in walnuts.
3. Pour batter into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees 15-20 minutes until edges are browned and top is firm and golden.

The cost: about $4.00