Recipe: Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins

June 10, 2020

Written by: Valentine Lebon, May 2020

(Vegan & Nut Free)

When grocery shopping I always buy bananas as a healthy snack or to make banana pancakes in the morning, but most mornings I'm too lazy to whip up a fresh batch of pancakes and often my bananas end up just sitting in my fruit bowl for weeks. The solution? Banana bread. But the even better solution? Banana bread muffins! Why might you ask? Well these muffins take half the time to bake, and as you might have gathered from my refusal to get up early to make banana pancakes, I am quite an impatient baker. It also makes the perfect to-go snack, or breakfast on the go!

This recipe is also a perfect way to reduce food waste, which is why I’ve paired it with Bean Bark pieces as a replacement for chocolate chips, because Bean Bark is also made with imperfect fruits.

By adding in chopped up Bean Bark pieces into the muffins you’re also adding in more protein, iron, and fiber! And for anyone with a nut allergy that can’t enjoy the crunch of walnuts in their banana bread, Bean Bark makes the perfect replacement as it also gives the muffins a bit of a crunch without any nuts!

So let’s get right to the recipe!

Recipe:

Ingredients (Makes 12 muffins)

2 flax eggs (2 tbsp of ground flaxseed meal + 6 tbsp of water)
3 overripe bananas
½ cup of melted coconut oil
¼ cup of brown sugar
¼ cup of white sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
½ cup of plant based milk
1 ½ cups of AP flour
½ cup of whole wheat flour (can sub in for ½ cup of AP flour)
1 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of cinnamon
¼ tsp of salt
Chopped up Bean Bark pieces (any flavor works!)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Start off by making your flax eggs and set aside to thicken.
In a separate bowl mash your overripe bananas and add in the coconut oil, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and plant based milk. Mix to combine.
Then add in your dry ingredients: AP flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Mix just to combine. The dough will be lumpy from the mashed bananas.
Once your dough is fully mixed, fold in your chopped up Bean Bark pieces. There’s no measurements for this part as we can’t put a number on how much chocolate you need;) (omit at your own risk!)
Line your muffin tin with muffin liners and scoop an even portion of the dough into each of the 12 tins (an ice cream scoop is useful for this part).
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool (so the muffins don’t stick to the liners) and enjoy!
Optional: melt some chocolate and drizzle it on top of the muffins for some extra sweetness!