Flourless banana bread muffins that are gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, oil-free and whipped up in the blender in under 5 minutes flat!
A strange thing happened to me this past weekend… I actually found myself in the company of a pair of overly spotty bananas. And no, that’s not me trying to be cute or coy — I mean that quite literally. There I was, standing in my kitchen on Sunday afternoon, staring down a pair of too-brown bananas that were sitting on my counter, and wondering how the heck I got myself into that kind of situation.
See, too-brown bananas are a rarity around these parts… I’m more likely to run out of bananas than I am to find some that are too brown, and for a few good reasons. First, I average about 2 bananas per day, meaning that most bananas end up digested before they end up too brown. Second, I have a feeling that my definition of “too-brown” might be a little browner than the average person’s, and I don’t often come across a banana that I consider too ripe to eat as-is. But, lo and behold, I met my match…
Fortunately, when life tosses you brown bananas, you can make banana bread.
Unfortunately, the idea to do so dawned on me a little late in the day and I only had about 30 minutes to spare before I needed to run out the door to head over to my parents’ for dinner… not ideal when a loaf has to spend around 50 minutes in the oven.
Fortunately, necessity is the mother of all invention, and she birthed a pretty awesome recipe this time around.
Unfortunately, using “birthed” when referring to a recipe is probably about as appealing as relating it to… well… never mind. I should probably stop there before I lose you. I think I’ll stick to pictures instead…
It’s been a handful of months since I’ve made a batch of flourless muffins, which is a handful of months too long. I love these little buggers. This batch is a tad bit different from my previous batches in that it uses two bananas instead of one and almond flour in place of half of the almond butter, but the result is the same — a soft and fluffy muffin that tastes just like a slice of banana bread and is gluten-free, refined sugar-free, dairy-free, oil-free, and made in the blender in under 5 minutes flat.
I thought about tossing in a small handful of chocolate chips or slivered almonds, but I’m a fan of keeping things simple when it comes to banana bread, so I decided to leave them as-is. The extra banana makes a big difference when it comes to giving these muffins a banana bread feel, making them the prefect way to get a fix when you only have 15 minutes to spare.
I’d love to know if you make this recipe! Leave a comment and rating down below to let me know what you think, and subscribe to our mailing list to receive new recipes in your inbox!
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Flourless Banana Bread Muffins
- Total Time: 15 mins
- Yield: 9 muffins 1x
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (64 g) almond butter*
- 2 ripe medium bananas (200 g or 1 cup mashed)
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tbsp (40 g) honey
- 1/2 cup (40 g) rolled oats
- 1/4 cup (28 g) almond flour/meal**
- 2 Tbsp (14 g) ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and prepare a muffin pan by spraying 9 cavities with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Add all ingredients to a blender and blend on high until oats are broken down and batter is smooth and creamy.
- Pour batter into prepared muffin pan, filling each cavity until it is about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the tops of your muffins are set and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pan for ~10 minutes before removing. Store in an air-tight container for up to a week.
Notes
* can sub with any nut/seed butter. ** can sub with 1/4 cup more oats.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
Looking for more delicious flourless muffin recipes? Try one of these!
Flourless Chocolate Chip Almond Butter Muffins
Flourless Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
Flourless Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Flourless Vegan Banana Muffins
Banana Oat Greek Yogurt Muffins
This recipe was so amazingly good and so easy!! Do you know how many calories are in each if you make 9? My recipe only made 8 this round.
I’m glad you liked them, Kallen! Each muffin comes out to about 125 calories.
Hi! Have you ever made this in loaf form? Would you need to change anything? Or just the baking time? How long would you make it in a loaf pan? I’ve made the muffins before and they were great and my family loved them as well!
Hi Andrea, I’ve never tried to make it in loaf form so I can’t say for sure, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. The only thing is that the recipe only makes 9 muffins, so the loaf would probably be pretty small. I might actually try to play around with the recipe and see if I can come up with one in a loaf form!
Thank you so much, they turned out heavenly! Next batch I make will have tiny slices of banana or frozen blueberries baked into them. Have a Merry Christmas!
I’m so glad they turned out, Gracie! Merry Christmas to you as well!
I am having a sudden craving for bananas; came across this recipe on Pinterest and would love to try it. I wanted to ask if I could use quick oats instead of rolled, and do I measure them before or after I blend them… Thanks!
Quick oats are absolutely fine, Gracie! They all get blended up anyways so it doesn’t matter what kind you use. And measure them beforehand.
I love these! My boyfriend and I tried all the different kinds, and we can’t get enough! They’re a staple in our apartment now, we make them every week for healthy snacks to satisfy our sweet tooth. Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Love these flourless muffins. Do you have nutrition facts and calories per serving size?
Sorry Betty, I don’t calculator the nutritional info for my recipes. But if you need to know specifics, you can enter the ingredients into a calculator like this one — http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator
Just made these for an afternoon snack and they were absolutely delicious! Thanks for a great, easy and FAST recipe. I like my banana bread nice and plain so I can really taste the banana flavor 🙂
Bananas are seriously a gift from the baking gods. I love these!
Thank-you for your assistance. I will follow your directions next time.
Yummy and so easy! Thank you! My biggest problem is trying to scrape all the batter out of my blender. Some day I will have an awesome blender.
I made this recipe using cocoa almond butter instead of almond butter with honey. The muffins never dried in the middle despite 20 minutes of baking. I can’t see why there should be such a difference in outcome. The rest of the recipe was identical.
Was your blender able to fully break down the oats? Because if not, they wouldn’t have absorbed as much liquid and the muffins would have a harder time to set. You could try grinding the oats into a flour prior to tossing them into the blender, or reducing the bananas by a little bit.
Made these yesterday and they turned our really great! Put a layer of Nutella on top and they were divine! Thanks for the great healthy treat!
finally tried this recipe!! Bomb dot com!! even my picky 8 yr old loved them! Score
I see that it says these muffins are gluten free but i have read mixed reviews on rolled oats being gluten free. do you have any insight on this?
Oats are naturally gluten-free and the only way they can cause problems for people with gluten sensitivities is through contamination as a result of being processed in the same facilities as wheat products. There are a lot of companies that produce their oats in separate facilities and offer certified gluten-free oats, though, and those shouldn’t be a problem.
I made these tonight and they turned out wonderful! I did end up adding one extra banana (because I had three rapidly browning bananas and didn’t want to leave one behind). I also ended up subbing coconut oil for the flax seed since my flax smelled a bit stale. Because of the additional banana I had to bake an extra 5 mins but the muffins are soooo tasty.
Thanks for the great recipe and great photos which have inspired me to let the bananas turn brown again next time.
i really want to try these! I can’t eat oats…do you think just adding all almond flour is ok?
I haven’t tried it personally, Erin, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work! The consistency of the muffins might be a bit different, but they should still be delicious 🙂
Hi, Just found your awesome sight looking for healthier banana muffins. All these recipes look amazing! Thanks for sharing. I’m sorry if someone already asked this or I missed it but do I need the flax seed? I know a lot of people use it in place of eggs. I just don’t have any right now and wanted to make them. I haven’t used flax in baking so wanted to make sure and ask about it for the future.
Excited to see more of your recipes!
You should be fine leaving them out of this recipe, Ruth!
Thanks so much. I made them and they are terrific. I omitted the flax seed since I didn’t have any, I used almond butter and they are so delicious!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I can’t wait to try your other muffins.
My three year old son loves these muffins, but they are even better when you add fresh blueberries just prior to putting them in the oven. I always make a double batch and they are gone in a few days!
My 10-year-old and three-year-old just finished making these muffins (they actually made mini muffins and we bake them for nine minutes) and they are the most delicious muffins ever!!thank you so much
Has anyone tried substituting Greek Style yogurt for Nut butter?
I’ve never tried it with this particular recipe, Tina, but I do have a different flourless muffin recipe that uses bananas, oats, and Greek yogurt. You can find it here — http://www.runningwithspoons.com/2014/06/24/banana-oat-greek-yogurt-muffins/
Cant wait to try some clean food muffin recipes. Ill have to see how these freeze. A few notes from my kitchen. Overly ripe bananas are a excellent kitchen ingredient here. They can be pulled out of their skins and frozen until ready for breads and ……. another gem I make here is banana pudding from scratch. One kitchen rule I have learned over the years is that the closer a banana is to that OMG thats gross stage without crossing the line. the more flavor it gives the final product.
So yummy. I did add Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips(soy free, dairy and nut free). I also had to bake them about 16 minutes because I live a high altitude. Otherwise they turned out great, thanks for the recipe.
Thanks for an amazing recipe!!! I was looking for a recipe I could bake with what I had in the pantry (I always throw extra ripe bananas in the freezer for when the mood strikes for banana bread) so I did have to make a couple of adjustments. I only had peanut butter (but plan on trying your recipe for Maple nut butter!), no flaxseed and no almond flour. So I used peanut butter, added the extra oats instead of the almond flour, omitted the flaxseed and as little treat added 1/4 cup chocolate chips. They are amazing – only three left within minutes of them being cooled lol! Next time hopefully I’ll have the Maple nut butter & flaxseed on hand. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes!!!
I’m glad you liked them, Sharri! Thanks so much for letting me know 😀
I just love your muffin recipes!!! I am following the Wheat Belly Plan and rolled Oats is not recommended, can I add Almond flour or flax meal in its place? Do you have a nutritional count for your recipes. Thank you………
You should be fine subbing in an equal amount of almond flour, Kathy. I wouldn’t reccomend flax meal since that would change the taste as well.