Banana Muffins

If I ever crave anything sweet, I usually turn to berries with homemade whip cream. I know cream is not allowed on the Paleo diet, so maybe I'm more Primal. I choose cream because of the fat content, and the fact that most of the protein has been removed, it does not contain as much lactose as milk. I've found it hard sometimes to get in that 65% of daily fat, so by adding cream to my morning coffee, I've been able to meet my macro targets.

On the other hand, Brandon has made amazing changes with me, but still enjoys an occasional baked treat. He's changed his eating habits completely and doesn't eat those treats that he used to be able to indulge in. However, it doesn't mean that you can't ever enjoy a little treat. I've been meaning to make banana bread/muffins, but haven't been able to get around to it. The bananas always get eaten before they are ripe enough. Luckily, I had two that were not completely ripe, but good enough for this recipe.

I also bought some new baking tools that I wanted to try out :)

Banana Muffins

Ingredients 

• 2 cups blanched almond flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 ripe bananas (mashed)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3 extra large eggs (or possibly 4 large ones)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp Stevia in the Raw
• 1 T melted coconut oil
  
• 1/2 cup nuts (optional - I used macadamia in the loaf)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix almond flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder.  You may need to "sift" the almond flour to remove large clumps.
3. In a separate bowl, combine mashed bananas, applesauce, eggs, stevia, and vanilla and mix well. Finally, mix in melted coconut oil. This is done last since coconut oil is hard, you don't want it to clump up when added to cold ingredients.
4. Combine dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Stir until combined. 
5. Fill greased muffin tins with about 3-4 T of mixture.  I used these baking cups and it  didn't stick to the cup one bit.  I then filled the leftover mixture into this loaf pan. 
6. Bake muffins for about 20 minutes,  until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I baked the mini loaf for 23 minutes. 
7. Let cool  and enjoy with your morning coffee or a dallop of whip cream :)

These muffins actually turned out really moist and and not overly sweet, probably because my bananas weren't super ripe. If you want a sweeter muffin, use riper (black) bananas,  more honey or stevia.