Banana Muffins with Almond Flour are easy, low-carb, paleo, and gluten-free. Banana muffins are naturally sweetened, fluffy, and full of banana flavor. Plus they are made in a blender!
Love baking with almond flour? Check out other reader’s favorite Almond Flour Brownie Recipe
Page Contents
Gluten-Free Banana Muffins with Almond Flour
Almond flour banana muffins came around after I purchased a Costco-size bag of almond flour, and have been playing around with it for a month making all kinds of healthy snack recipes.
Swap out your loaf pan for a muffin pan instead, and within 40 minutes, you can enjoy fluffy muffins. Plus, unlike traditional muffins, almond flour banana bread muffins are lower in carbs, sugar-free, oil-free, and grain-free. Making them a great option for a healthy and easy breakfast, snack, or dessert.
What Makes These Muffins Healthy?
- Sugar-Free These healthy muffins are free from any refined sugar, honey, or maple syrup (minus the chocolate chips). Not even a drop of oil. Isn’t it amazing
- Low carb, high protein, and full of fiber: Nutrition wise they beat most banana snacks. Eat one and you are full without even minor bloating. My kids love these and yours will too
- Fluffy banana muffins: Just because these are gluten-free banana muffins, doesn’t mean that I wanted to sacrifice flavor or texture. These little banana bread are light, fluffy, and raised (especially for almond flour muffins).
- Best of all, they have no odd aftertaste or dense “heavy” feel
- Dietary friendly: There are also several ways you can adapt this almond flour banana muffins recipe too. Just keep reading for all the top tips, tricks, and recipe variations
Ingredients for Low Carb Banana Muffins with Almond Flour
You will need 10 simple ingredients to make these low-carb banana muffins
- Bananas: Use overripe bananas with lots of black spots. When mashed, it takes about 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas
- Eggs: Use large eggs for the best results. You could try the recipe with all egg whites (1 egg = 1/4 cup of whites), but I much prefer the former
- Almond flour: Use blanched almond flour, which yields moist and tender baked goods due to the higher healthy fats content. Some have had success with almond meals, but the texture may be grainy, and it can taste “healthier”
- Baking powder and baking soda: Act as leavening agents and provide a rise for fluffy results
- Vanilla extract: It is wonderful to add dessert flavor to the muffins without the need for added sugars. Use vanilla seeds, if following paleo
- Cinnamon and salt
Variations
- Chocolate chips: I use mini dark chocolate chips, which I find distribute better than larger ones or chocolate chunks. You could also use sugar-free chocolate chips or cacao nibs (for paleo banana muffins)
- Chopped nuts: Add about a handful of chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc
- Blueberries: Use fresh or frozen blueberries(don’t thaw before baking). Add around 1/4 cup
- Raisins: Add between 1/4 – 1/2 cups of raisins. You could also add half raisins and half nuts
- Citrus zest: Use 1/2 – 1 orange or lemon zest depending on how much flavor you want
- Sweetener: This almond flour banana muffin batter has the right amount of sweetness. If you do have more of a sweet tooth, add a little bit of your favorite granulated sweetener. For keto banana muffins, use monk fruit or erythritol
- For vegan banana muffins: Swap the eggs for chia seed egg or flax egg instead. The recipe won’t be quite as “pretty” or risen, but it should be delicious
How to Make Almond Flour Banana Muffins
Here is a quick overview of how to make almond flour banana muffins in a blender. It is such an easy recipe where you don’t need to dirty a bowl, use a masher, or mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately.
Prepare the batter: First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Then, in a blender or food processor, add bananas, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and process until smooth.
I love to blend my almond flour muffin batter into an almost smoothie consistency for pillowy, soft banana muffins. The food processor won’t yield as smooth results but it works.
Then, add almond flour and process just enough to combine. Pause, scrape the walls, and process again just a bit, to combine.
Add chocolate chips (or your choice of add-ins, if using) and stir with a spatula.
Divide the mixture evenly: Using an ice cream scoop, distribute the batter between 12 muffin pan openings until they’re 3/4 full each. You can line them with muffin liners or use a silicone muffin tin sprayed lightly with cooking spray.
Bake: Bake almond flour banana muffins in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Once baked, remove them from the oven, allow them to cool on a cooling rack for about 20 minutes, and then enjoy!
How to Make Ahead and Store
Make Ahead: You can prepare the batter, minus the leavening agents, up to a day in advance. Leave it covered in the refrigerator and mix in the baking powder and soda before baking the muffins.
Storing: Store muffins at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. As they’re quite moist, I’ve found they store better when loosely covered rather than in an airtight container.
Freezing: Freeze in layers with parchment paper, in a large freezer bag. They will store in the freezer for up to three months.
How Do You Reheat the Muffins?
- From fridge: Microwave the muffins in 15-second increments until warmed through
- From the freezer: Thaw in the fridge first and then reheat as in the step above. Alternatively, add straight to the microwave and heat in 20-second increments until warmed through
Can I Substitute the Almond Flour?
This recipe was designed explicitly with almond flour in mind. However, there are several ways you can substitute the flour, though each will affect the final result in one way or another.
The closest substitution for almond flour would be cashew flour. For a nut-free version, you can use sunflower seed flour.
Others in the comments have also successfully substituted cassava flour, and oat flour or used a combination of almond flour and all-purpose gluten-free flour.
If using leftover almond pulp (dried) from almond milk, you’ll need to add a little oil to the recipe due to the lower fat content. 1-2 tablespoons of melted butter, avocado oil, or melted coconut oil should work.
Any time you experiment with a different flour in gluten-free baking, it may require a little tweaking. If your muffins seem a little dry, use more banana, a little oil, or liquid sweetener. A bit too moist? Increase the flour, etc.
Tips for Best Results
- Measure the flour using the “spoon and level method”: Use a spoon to add flour to your measuring cup and then use the back of a knife to level off the cup. Avoid scooping flour directly into your measuring cup, or you’ll add too much.
- You can make almond flour at home: It is basically ground almonds.
- Just use blanched almonds (or do that yourself by boiling them for 1 minute, rinsing them under cold water, and removing the skins), allow them to dry, and then blend for 10-20 seconds into a floury powder.
- If you’re counting calories: Several readers have pointed out to me that their almond flour varies massively from mine in terms of calories (up to 100 cal less per muffin!).
- For this reason, I suggest plugging this recipe into a nutrition app with your specific ingredients for accurate numbers.
FAQs of Banana Muffins with Almond Flour
Almond flour is made from ground almonds and has a fine, powdery texture. It is a popular gluten-free flour substitute that is high in protein and healthy fats.
Yes, banana muffins made with almond flour are naturally gluten-free. Almond flour is a great alternative to wheat flour for those who have gluten sensitivities or celiac disease.
Yes, you can substitute other types of flour for almond flour in this recipe, but keep in mind that the texture and taste may be different. For example, using wheat flour will give you a different texture and a gluten-containing product.
Yes, you can use frozen bananas for this recipe. Just make sure to let them thaw before using them in the recipe.
Yes, you can make these muffins ahead of time and store them in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to a week in the refrigerator. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months.
Yes, you can add other ingredients to this recipe such as chocolate chips, nuts, or dried fruit. Just be sure to adjust the baking time and temperature accordingly.