Easy recipe for delicious, healthy paleo banana muffins made with whole food, natural ingredients that are legal for gut healing diets too!
Yum! Â Paleo banana muffins!
I love to try out new things in the kitchen. It helps prevent getting stuck in the same old routine and same old meals week in and week out.
I frequently get in over my head, with something taking a lot more time and effort (and mess!) than I ever imagined! My family laughs at me when I get into some sort of cooking debacle, so it serves as a form of homegrown comedy as well.
You have to be able to laugh at yourself in the kitchen, else you will find cooking to be a chore rather than a joy. Any essentially creative process is going to involve lots of failure to balance out the success.
I experienced yet another cooking debacle about last night. I’m not sure what possessed me to make paleo banana muffins out of almond flour at such a late hour, especially after an especially busy day. I usually make them out of einkorn or homemade gluten free flour.
Oh well, when the creative bug bites, you just have to go with it.
Homemade Grain Free Banana Muffins
I already had some soaked/low temp dried raw almonds in the pantry. Soaking nuts increases digestibility and nutrient absorption considerably, if you didn’t already know!
So I decided to grind them with a Black & Decker coffee grinder that I had purchased for that very reason. I don’t normally drink coffee, but had been advised that they are great for grinding almonds into flour.
First, I put some almonds in the grinder, closed the lid and pressed the grind button. Nothing happened! I figured the almonds were too big, so I whipped out my 2 cup Cuisinart food processor, put the almonds in, and pulsed a few times to chop them into smaller pieces. Then, I put the chopped almonds back into the coffee grinder to try grinding one more time.
This time, the coffee grinder did manage to grind about 2 cups of fine, almond flour before getting completely clogged up. It then took me about 15 minutes to clean the thing out and grind the last 1/2 cup of almond flour to get enough for 1 batch of paleo banana muffins!
Needless to say, the coffee grinder is trashed as the grinding mechanism can’t be removed and cleaned, so it is hopelessly gooed up. Coffee grinders are probably great for grinding sprouted almonds or raw almonds that haven’t been soaked first. Oh well, live and learn.
At least the paleo banana muffins turned out fantastic! Here’s the recipe I used (basic recipe from Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Natasha Campbell-McBride MDÂ with a few tweaks of my own).
Love muffins? Try these wholesome recipes for grain free blueberry muffins, Paleo lemon poppyseed muffins, and green banana flour blueberry muffins too.
Paleo Banana Muffins Recipe
This easy recipe for delicious, healthy paleo banana muffins made with almond flour and other natural ingredients is legal for gut healing diets too!
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups almond flour finely ground, preferably from sprouted or soaked/dehydrated raw almonds
- 1/4 cup coconut oil expeller pressed, preferably organic
- 3 eggs preferably pastured
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 bananas very ripe, mashed
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3-5 drops stevia extract optional
- 1 Tbl banana flour optional
Instructions
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Mix everything together well in a glass bowl. Pour batter into muffin pans and bake for about 50 minutes at 300 F/149 C.
Not into baking? This delicious paleo banana muffins mix is something to whip up even more quickly! Or, try this gluten free banana bread recipe instead!
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Pour batter into muffin pans and bake for about 50 minutes at 300 F/149 C.
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Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Not into baking?  This healthy and delicious paleo banana muffins mix is something to whip up even more quickly! Great for children just learning the ropes for healthy baking.
Or, try this gluten free banana bread recipe instead!
Having not tried this before and possibly asking an ignorant question…would it be any easier to grind the unsoaked almonds and soak the almond flour overnight?
New to your blog and enjoying the read! Thanks for sharing your story about going grain free and inspiring me to consider doing the same.
I found that I get great almond flour if I first use them to make almond milk. Soak the almonds overnight, then drain the almonds and transfer them to a blender and add water. Blend for a few seconds or minutes (depending on speed & power of blender) then pour this mixture into a nut milk bag that will separate the 'milk' from the almond pulp. After squeezing all the water out of the nut milk bag, the almond pulp can be placed on a tray and dehydrated on low oven setting for a few hours. Voila, almond flour! I picked up on this tip after watching raw foodies prep almond milk on youtube. I've included a link to a short video that demos how to make the milk. If you're making almond flour, I'd omit the dates until you've strained the almond pulp. btw, fresh almond milk is a wonderful sub for dairy… and delish, too!
Great info and conversation going here 🙂 Personal experience: The Kitchen Aid grain grinder does an OKAY job on wheat berries, but I still have to sift and then grind the left behind chunks in our coffee grinder. Coffee grinders are great for soaked/dehydrated nuts as well and other things 🙂 The VitaMix rocks for everything except Sally Fallon's zarathustra bread – it's worthless for that. But it is GREAT for grinding wheat berries, etc., and if you grind it for only the time stated in the instructions, it will give you perfect flour without overheating the flour, just warm it.
Can't wait to try this recipe. I have been exploring grain-free recipes due to Type II diabetes. I purchased some almond flour online. I’m sure the soaked nuts are better, but this is easier.
A WAPF Chapter Leader in PA (Maureen Diaz) has told me that the Vita-mix does grind soaked/dried nuts into flour nicely.
Sarah, can a Vita-mix make almond flour? I know it can do nut butters and and ground nuts. That in between stage is tricky. Does anyone out there with a Vita-mix have experience using it to make nut flours (not merely finely ground nuts)particularly with soaked/dried nuts? I guess one would also need the "dry" grinding container? I'm interested in learning more about using a Vita-mix and would welcome any advice/recommendations you might have. They cost a lot, but I'm thinking it might be worth the investment if it can really do so many different tasks. Thanks so much.
No, I do not think a regular grain grinder will work. I've already tried it in my grain grinder and it didn't work at all.
Sarah, do you think a grain grinder, like Wondermill (formerly Whispermill) will grind the almonds? I just checked on the price of Vita-Mix, yikes! Rita
My gut feeling is that a coffee grinder would not work for grain. Wheat kernals are so very hard and I do not think the grinder in a coffee grinder would be strong enough to handle it. But, if you have a coffee grinder handy, give it a try and see how it goes! The one risk is that you might break it.
Hi Sarah, 3 questions: (1) Would it be possible to use the coffee grinder to grind wheat berries into flour? (2) Do you think that the grinding temperature with the coffee grinder get too hot and denature the grains/flour? (3) Would the soaked berries clog up the coffee grinder like it did the almonds?
Thanks, AL