Easy Gluten-Free Banana Mini Muffins
These gluten-free banana mini muffins are great for breakfast and as a snack any time of the day. Enjoy banana goodness in this fun treat!
When first deciding to go gluten-free, it can be a challenge to find easy snacks and quick on-the-go breakfast items. I don't tend to eat pancakes and muffins anymore for breakfast, except when I am traveling. Most hotels have a breakfast spread full of foods I can't eat, so my solution is usually one of my own gluten free muffins, or a hard boiled egg, leftover dinners from the night before, or a granola bar. If I am heading out on a road trip where I can take my own food, I usually make up a batch of something like these gluten free banana mini muffins.
I thought I was saying goodbye to a lot of foods (like muffins) when I started making changes to my diet. Now, I love finding small ways to change the things I ate before to make them healthy, delicious, and most importantly, something I want to be eating. Plus, if you have bananas that look like these above lying around, banana bread is the perfect solution.
I chose to make these in "mini" size so they would make a great snack for myself or any kids lunches too.
These gluten-free mini muffins are also one of my low-sugar go-tos. That said, there are plenty of ways to modify them to your taste by using other sweet ingredient substitutions. Plus, they take only 15 minutes to bake, so they won't take up too much of your time.
Mini Muffin Pan
I made this recipe as a mini muffin because I was originally using it as a kid’s snack. The Mom also wanted to control the portion size her kids were getting. This is the mini muffin pan I use from Cuisinart.
Wilton also makes a great 24 mini cup muffin pan.
You can also line your muffin tin with muffin liners. My favorite liners are the unbleached parchment liners from “if you care”. They are hard to find in the store, so I usually order some from Amazon so I know I have them when I’m ready to bake.
The Sweeteners in this Recipe
I’ve made a mix of half coconut sugar and half brown sugar. The coconut sugar was originally white sugar and I am trying to lower the amount of refined sugars in the overall recipe This recipe can be made with your own mix of sugar, depending on how sweet you want it.
This recipe originally contained 1 cup of white sugar before I converted it. To lessen the amount of refined sugar, I changed it to ½ cup coconut sugar and ½ cup brown sugar. This will make the bread less sweet. But you can go by your own sweet tooth level. It works great with ½ cup white sugar and ½ cup brown sugar, too.
A Note On Gluten Free Flours
These gluten-free mini muffins call for a number of gluten-free flours that you can use in other recipes (like my carrot zucchini mini muffins). If you don’t want to purchase all of these separate flours, or if you don't have access to all the flours, you can also use a pre-made gluten-free flour mix from Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur, but check the ingredients before buying. Otherwise, you may accidentally double up if the mix already has xanthan gum and baking soda in it. The combination below works perfectly for me with this recipe, but you can decide what works best for you.
You can learn more about gluten free flours in this post. I really like to keep all the individual flours in my house and make my own blends. It gives me more control and I can play around with the flavors and textures.
Substitutions
Sugar - use any combination of white, brown and coconut sugar, just keep the amount at 1 cup total
Flour - you need 2 cups total flour, my blend is: ½ cup brown rice flour, ½ cup sorghum flour, ½ cup tapioca starch, ¼ cup potato flour, ¼ cup millet flour. You can substitute a gluten free all purpose flour, I prefer King Arthur’s All Purpose Blend
Oil - I’ve used coconut oil here instead of butter to make this dairy free
Let's make some Gluten Free Banana Mini Muffins!
Printer-Friendly Recipe
Easy Gluten-Free Banana Mini Muffins
A miniature, gluten-free version of a homemade favorite: banana bread!
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups very ripe bananas, mashed (about 4 medium bananas
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups gluten-free flour blend
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350° F
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add the mashed banana, sugar, apple sauce, oil and vanilla. Mix well.
- In a small bowl, measure out all the flours, baking soda and salt and stir with a whisk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Pour the batter into mini muffin cups and bake for 15 minutes total, rotating the pan half way through. Use a toothpick or skewer to test for doneness – when the toothpick comes out clean after pricking the muffin, it's baked through.
Notes
FLOUR MIX:
you can use pre-made gluten-free flour mix, OR try this DIY mix: ½ cups brown rice flour, 1/2 sorghum flour, 1/2 cup tapioca starch, 1/4 cup potato flour, 1/4 cup millet flour)
This recipe can be made with your own mix of sugar, depending on how sweet you want it. It originally contained 1 cup of white sugar. To lessen the amount of refined sugar, I changed it to ½ cup coconut sugar and ½ cup brown sugar. This will make the bread less sweet. But you can go by your own sweet tooth level. It works great with ½ cup white sugar and ½ cup brown sugar, too.
* I like making gluten-free breads like this in smaller sizes as the finished loaf just comes out better. You can make this into small quarter sized loaves too. Makes 4 loaves. Bake 25 minutes, then rotate pan and bake 25 more minutes. It is finished when a skewer comes out clean.
You May Also like:
Gluten Free Zucchini Bread
Carrot Zucchini Mini Muffins
Gluten-Free Carrot Cake
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