Avoid the carbs, but not the muffin

Recipe: Macro-balanced Banana Muffins

Looking to eat clean, improve your diet but still want something fulfilling? This easy, vegan recipe makes lovely, light muffins without the use of refined flours, sugars and seed oils. By replacing white flour, using almond flour gives protein and healthy fats, while green banana flour offers high resistant starch fiber, they can be found in most health stores. These muffins are mostly sweetened by bananas, we add just a little bit of coconut sugar to level up to typical store-bought muffins.

White flour is a denatured flour made of wheat, they include everything from all purpose flour, bread flour, cake flour, and basically any flour that is white and fine in texture. White flour is produced by removing the germ and the bran from each wheat kernel, removing most of the nutrients wheat is composed of, leaving only starch. This starch is converted to sugar and may spike our blood glucose. Excess sugar can cause inflammation, weight gain, and definitely should be avoided for those dealing with metabolic dysfunctions.

Pro tip: Batch cook these muffins for an easy grab-and-go snack or breakfast. Keep them in the fridge, and slightly warm in the oven or microwave to return to a bouncy texture. If they feel dry after some days in the fridge, sprinkle some water on before warming.

N.B I haven't tried to freeze them yet, but if you do, I suggest to put them in an airtight bag so they don't get freeze burn and loose a lot of moisture.

Serving size : 5 muffins

Ingredients

For Flax egg

• Ground flax 3 g.

• Filtered water 23 g.

  
  

For Muffin mix (wet)

• Ripe bananas (with peel on) 120 g.

• Lime juice 1/2 pc

• Vanilla extract 0.75 g.

For Muffin mix (dry)

• Raw blanched almond flour 43 g.

• Green / Raw Banana flour 28 g.

• Coconut sugar 12 g.

• Baking soda 1.5 g.

• Baking powder 0.5 g.

• Cinnamon 1 g.

• Salt 0.5 g.

Optional 

• Filtered water 10 g

• Coconut oil for greasing

Direction

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.

2. Make flax egg (vegan egg replacement) by combining ground flax and water, mix well and let sit for 10 mins to result in a gelling texture.

3. Peel banana and cut into pieces, in a mixing bowl, add lime juice to decrease oxidation, add vanilla extract and mash together into a liquified mixture.

4. Combine flax egg into banana mixture, mix well.

5. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients, whisk well to prevent any lumps.

6. Mix wet ingredients mixture to dry ingredients, and fold in.

7. The mixture should resemble a slightly wetter texture compared to cookie dough. If it's too dry, add in 10 g. of water.

8. Taste for sweetness, option to add more coconut sugar. The ultimate sweetness will depend on how ripe your bananas are.

9. Use a silicone muffin tray, or use paper liners, dollop in the banana muffin mixture. If using a metal muffin tray, brush with some coconut oil to grease and prevent sticking.

10. Bake muffins for around 20-30 mins, checking them at 15 mins.

11. Stick a small skewer or knife and it should come out clean when done. Muffin exterior should be a nice golden brown.

12. Let cool completely before removing or consuming, as the muffins will continue to cook with residual heat inside.

Nutrition Facts (Per Muffin)

Nutrient	Amount	% Daily Value*
Calories	107.1 kcal	5%
Total Fat	4.7 g	7%
└ Saturated Fat	0.4 g	2%
└ Trans Fat	0 g	—
Cholesterol	0 mg	0%
Sodium	137.7 mg	6%
Total Carbohydrate	14.7 g	5%
└ Dietary Fiber	1.4 g	6%
└ Sugars	6.8 g	—
Protein	2.6 g	5%
Calcium	—	6%
Iron	—	9%
Vitamin C	—	7%
Vitamin A	—	0%

*Based on a 2,000-calorie daily intake.