Yum. These muffins are good. Really good. I've been working on this recipe for awhile now to share with you all. It started when Jeff requested banana muffins, so I adapted my recipe for Elderberry Applesauce Muffins. I kept experimenting until I got the recipe to my liking and then, then Jeff had a brilliant inspiration for a frosting we could make for the top (good timing, just in time for his birthday.) This past weekend, in celebration of Jeff's birthday, I made these muffins and Jeff whipped up the frosting he had been inspired to make. I liked these muffins before, but with the frosting on top- they were incredible.
I should say that I've never been a huge banana fan in general. And then
after reading the book 'Animal Vegetable Miracle' it made me not want
to purchase bananas much and further fueled my inspiration to eat as
locally as possible. But Jeff and Bracken like bananas and I think
they're delicious in baked goods. So I like to have them in our
home as a special treat, rather than something we buy all the time. It's not that I'm against buying foods that are not grown locally, it's just that I prefer not to purchase much produce that is picked long before it's ripe and then travels a long way to our plate. The
bulk of our diet is local foods, but there are things we love and will
continue to love that can't be grown locally (like coconut oil and
almonds, for example) and I'm fine with that. For our family, it's about finding a balance that feels right for us.
Back to these muffins. They are full of healthy, nourishing ingredients, which makes them filling as well. Eggs, bananas, almond flour, coconut oil... so much goodness in these yummy muffins!
Banana Nut Muffins
.
Ingredients:
6 :: Eggs
3 tablespoons :: Coconut Flour
1 teaspoon :: Sea Salt
1/4 cup :: Coconut Oil
2 cups :: Almond Flour
1 and 1/2 cups :: Bananas
1/2 cup :: Chopped Nuts
.
......
.
Directions:
.
Preheat your oven to 375.
In your food processor (what we use) or mixer: blend eggs,
coconut flour,
and salt. When well blended, add your coconut oil. (If it's
solid, heat it up before adding.) Blend in almond flour, bananas, and nuts. Grease your muffin pan with some coconut oil or use
liners. Spoon your batter into
each. Bake for 30 minutes. Done when a fork in the center of
your muffin comes out clean.
Makes 12 muffins.
Coconut Honey Frosting
.
Ingredients:
.
Coconut Oil
Raw Honey
.
......
.
Directions:
.
Wait till your muffins cool. In a bowl, mix coconut oil and honey together. I don't list amounts because I think it's best to blend them till the sweetness is to your liking. (Jeff added a tiny amount of turmeric to ours to give it a little yellow color, but not enough to flavor it.) The consistency of the coconut oil is important at this stage. You don't want it liquid, but not too hard either. When we have ours out at room temperature in our house, it's a good consistency for mixing with the honey and spreading on the muffins. Spread how much frosting you want on each muffin, then place them in the fridge (you can sprinkle some chopped nuts on top, if you'd like.) The frosting will harden up. We ate them right out of the fridge, but if you want the frosting a tad softer you can bring them out awhile before serving. (The frosting from the fridge was hard so that I had to use a spoon to poke a hole in the top to put a candle in for the birthday festivities.) 
........
About Ingredients:
.
Eggs: From local pastured hens are most nutritious, of course! (And yolks from patured hens are rich in Vitamin D, not to mention lots of other good things.)
.
Almond Flour: I used almond flour by Bob's Red Mill. We
bought it at the grocery store. When I looked it up online, I noticed
it was more expensive than what we pay at the store. Yes, it is spendy
flour, but the recipe only calls for two cups. Many people grind their
own (our food processor didn't get it to a flour consistency, or else we
would.)
.
Bananas: Dark, bruised ones are the best for baking. Unripe bananas are hard to digest. Sometimes you can get deals on the really ripe bananas at the grocery store, so they can move them before they go bad. (You want them much riper than the ones in these pictures. I seized the moment for some banana photography recently while the sun was shining in.)
.
Coconut Oil: This coconut oil from Tropical Traditions is the best I've ever come across.
.
Honey: Raw honey has lots of enzymes that are lost when it's heated. Raw, local honey is said to help with allergies in your local area.
.
Chopped Nuts: We used hazelnuts from Honor Earth Farm. Almonds are good too. I didn't actually "chop" them, I ground them into chunks in the food processor.
.
Sea Salt: The salt you choose is important. Most salt at the store has been stripped off all it's natural minerals with toxic methods. Use real sea salt or himalayan crystal salt (our favorite), that's rich in minerals.
......
I would prefer not to use muffin liners at all, but use them because we
have a muffin pan that is less than ideal and I feel safer having a
barrier of sorts between the pan and the muffins. I use these liners (that are really inexpensive from the grocery store), and don't need to oil them because the muffins don't stick to them. 
A note about nuts:
These are some hazelnuts I soaked for the recipe. I've written a little about why we soak nuts and seeds in this post, along with how we do it. Nuts are easier to digest when they've been soaked first, so I prepared the chopped nuts for the muffins that way. However, the almond flour we use is not soaked first. Someday, we'll make our own flour with almonds we soak first, but in the meantime we soak what we can.
Our friends approved of these muffins too. (In fact our friend has a hard time getting her little guy to eat much, but he chowed these down like nobody's business.) They were surprised that they were something we ate, since they know we eat healthy and these tasted so good it was hard to believe they were made with healthy ingredients.
These muffins make a great snack. With the addition of the frosting, they make a delicious treat for special occasions. (Edited to add: without the frosting, there is no sweetener. If you don't make the frosting, I recommend a little raw honey spread on the top of each muffin before eating if you'd like them a bit sweeter.) Jeff would have liked raisins included, but I forgot to pick some up when we went to the grocery store. You'll notice how simple the list of ingredients is and these muffins don't take long to make either. Little ones love to get involved in the making. Bracken likes to put the liners in the muffin pan, help me pour in ingredients, peel the bananas, and spoon the batter into the muffin liners. His word for muffins sounds like "muh muh" and he requests muffins from mama quite often.
(Want to make this recipe? Pin the top picture to your Pinterest page to refer back to.)
.
Happy Baking and Happy Eating!
