Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Muffins

Not too sweet, not too chocolate-y, just the right amount of banana flavor with just a hint of coffee all in a "no one could tell" gluten free dairy free muffin!

Gluten Free

Chocolate Chip Coffee Banana Muffins

1 c shortening or Butter (I use spectrum organic shortening or Earth Balance to make these dairy free)

1 cup sugar (organic cane sugar)

2 eggs

3 ripe bananas

1/4 cup brewed coffee

1 TBSP vanilla

2 1/4 cup gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum (King Arthur makes a good one if you don't have your own blend)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda 

1 TBSP baking powder

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (dairy free)

Preheat oven to 350

Grease muffin tin or use cupcake liners.  I like to grease it because the muffins fall apart more when you peel the liners off and you get a better crust without paper liners.

Blend shortening and sugar.  Then add eggs, bananas, coffee and vanilla and mix on low until smooth and combined.

In seperate bowl combine dry ingredients and then add to the banana mixture, stir til combined.

Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins.  I fill almost to top of muffin cup.

For regular size muffins bake 15-17 minutes or until golden-brown on top.

For mini muffins bake for 12-15 minutes until golden-brown on top.

Remove from oven and let set for a minute or 2 then transfer to wire cooling rack.  

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Gluten and Dairy Free

One of the things my kids and I share a deep love for is MUFFINS!  I have fond memories of my childhood going to the mall with my mom, smelling the wonderful smell of fresh baked muffins and sniffing my way to a MMMuffins! I chain in Canada where I always found my favorite treat...a big chocolate chip muffin!  I mean, just check out this muffin...wouldn't YOU want to dig in?  You have no idea how good these muffins are....unless of course you've had them...

mmmuffins

Then in my young adult years (up until I gave up gluten and got my joints back...I'm still 27...till my b-day in a week and a half...that's still young adult right??)  I would indulge in the chocolate chip muffins from Dunkin' Donuts when we made trips to the East Coast and then more frequently when we moved to Dallas.  Now....If I want to buy a good muffin, I'll pick up a 4 pack of Udi's blueberry muffins...but I'm not really allowed to eat them, my 4 year old will disown me  unless I sneak it, she's pretty possessive of her muffins....wonder where she gets that from!!!

Udi's blueberry muffins

So when it comes to having muffins enough to share, yummy enough to still want to hoard all 12 of them to yourself anyways, muffins that don't contain gluten or dairy and also don't break the bank we make our own.  We have a few good recipes we've shared previously such as

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffin with Coconut Struesel
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins
Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

And our newest favorite ....

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

gluten free dairy free

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup flour gf flour blend*

3/4 cup sugar

1 TBsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 applesauce

3/4 milk (coconut milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc)

2 tsp vanilla

1 large banana (mashed)

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (ghiridelli semi sweet are dairy free)

*I use Silvana Nardone's Gluten Free Flour Blend if you have another gluten free flour blend you like, just use that but if there is not xanthan gum already in your blend, add 1 tsp xanthan gum to recipe.  I just love the texture of Silvana's blend, just like regular flour, light and smooth.

Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 cup muffin tin with paper muffin cups

Combine dry ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl.

In separate bowl, combine wet ingredients

Mix all together, add chocolate chips and gently fold and mix till just moistened

Divide into muffin cups and bake for 22-25 minutes til slightly golden on top.

Dig in while still steamy and chocolate chips are melting all over your face and hands......dare I say....mmmmmmmm....muffins!!!

Before you go, enter my current giveaway HERE!!!

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Also Dairy Free

OK so maybe this isn’t the best recipe to be posting the first week of the new year when so many of use are trying to be healthier, but sometimes you need things like this to get through certain things….okay…yeah, we don’t NEED food to cope with things, but sometimes, if I can just eat something chocolate…I’m a much better person.  Anyways, the kids love ‘em too.  For some reason I got thinking about muffins and those jumbo chocolate chocolate chip muffins you can buy at Costco or other bakeries and I just really missed being able to have that.  So I pulled out the best muffin recipe I have ever used (including pre-gluten free days) and just made one change to it to make these delicious gluten free chocolate chocolate chip muffins or double chocolate chip muffins….however you want to say it!

Here is the gluten free muffin recipe, but to make them double chocolate, just like the ones from the store, you are going to subtract 1/3 cup flour and replace it with 1/3 cup cocoa powder.  Then add a cup of Ghirardelli semi-sweet or 60% cocoa chocolate chips (they are dairy free and I use coconut milk when making these).

Gluten Free Homemakers Basic Muffin Recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

• 1 2/3 c. gluten-free flour mix
• 1/3 c cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1  Tb. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 – 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla or other flavoring
• 3/4 – 1 c. milk, juice, or water
• up to 1 c. chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and sugar.  In a smaller bowl, or measuring cup, combine the oil, eggs, vanilla and milk.  Add that to the dry ingredients and whisk together until moistened.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Divide into lined muffin cups and I like to sometimes sprinkle a little sugar on top like the bakeries do.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.  Usually best served warm.

(note: I use Silvana Nardone's GF blend and leave out the xanthan gum when making this recipe since her blend already has the xanthan gum in it.  I just love her blend and all her recipes!  

I love this recipe because it is so versatile!  I've also used this gluten free muffin recipe to make

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Strawberry Muffins

Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Muffins with Coconut Streusel

Gluten Free Coffee Cake with Maple Frosting

Chocolate Chip and Strawberry Muffins- Gluten Free Dairy Free

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Dairy Free

Strawberry Muffins

Gluten Free and Dairy Free

We are muffin lovers, that was one of the hardest parts about changing our diet to gluten free dairy free...no more muffins. Until we found the yummy Udi's muffins but they are pricey!  My daughter and I used to always bake muffins together, and we have been finally enjoying more muffin making together again.  We have been using the Basic Gluten Free Muffin Recipe by Gluten Free Homemaker that we used to concoct our amazing Blueberry Muffins with Coconut Topping.  We most recently used the basic recipe to make chocolate chip muffins (using ghiradelli mini chocolate chips they have no dairy) and  strawberry muffins by adding cut up strawberries to the batter.  We sprinkled sugar on top to make our muffins more like the ones from the bakery.  These are so good they do not last very long at all around here!

Basic Gluten-Free Muffin Recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

• 2 c. gluten-free flour mix
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1  Tb. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 – 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4 – 1/2 c. oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla or other flavoring
• 3/4 – 1 c. milk, juice, or water
• up to 1 c. additions (see note)
• optional ingredients (see note)

In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  In a smaller bowl, or measuring cup, combine the egg, flavoring,  and liquid.  Add that with the oil to the dry ingredients and whisk together until moistened.  Stir in additions.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.  Usually best served warm.

(note: I use Silvana Nardone's GF blend and leave out the xanthan gum when making this recipe since her blend already has the xanthan gum in it.  I just love her blend and all her recipes!  

Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Muffins with Coconut Streusel

Wow, my kitchen smells glorious right now!  I want to capture this aroma and bottle it or put it into a candle so my kitchen can smell like this all the time!  Something's in the oven...

Gluten Free Blueberry Lemon Muffins with Coconut Streusel

I was inspired to make these because we had a big box of blueberries in the fridge and 3 of my husbands favorite things are blueberries, lemons, and coconut so I wanted to put it all together.  I found a basic Gluten Free Muffin Recipe over at Gluten Free Homemaker that you can see here.  It's a great basic muffin recipe with options so you can play with it to make any kind of muffins you want.  I pretty much followed her recipe except I didn't add xanthan gum because I already have xanthan gum in my Silvana's all purpose gluten free flour blend that I made a big container of. For my version on the  basic recipe I left out the xanthan gum and used 1/2 cup sugar, about 1-2 Tbls lemon juice, lemon zest of 1 lemon, and 1 cup blueberries.  The coconut streusel topping is as follows:

3/4 cup coconut flakes

1/2 cup all purpose GF flour

1/4 cup sugar (50/50 brown sugar and granulated sugar)

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp Bestlife buttery baking sticks

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and cut together using a fork or your hands till you get a crumbly mixture, mine had quite a few clumps, it wasn't as crumbly as a typical crumb topping. Drop the clumpy, crumbly coconut mixture over the tops of the muffins before baking, then bake as directed in the Basic Gluten Free Muffin Recipe.

I am really happy with the height these muffins have, must be from the amount of baking powder! I've never used that much baking powder in a recipe before, but it's awesome, these muffins don't have the typical flat tops that most gluten free baked goods have.  Now...time for the taste test...

OH MY!!!!  I have been searching and baking my way to find the perfect muffin recipe for years, long before going gluten free.  I am in heaven.  These are by far the best muffins I have EVER made, and they are gluten free and dairy free!  MMMMMMmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! Is all I can say right now! Go get some blueberries, a lemon and some coconut flakes quick and get baking right now! I can't believe how good these are!  I'm sure non-gluten free bakers could make this same recipe just using regular flour in place of gf flour and leaving out the xanthan gum!  The crispy coconut topping really sent these lemon blueberry muffins over the edge. Now I just need to have some will power to not eat anymore till hubs and daughter get home! I made the muffins for them! lol!

ps- and the verdict from my husband is...they are REALLY good...although he says he can still tell they are gluten free.  He thinks I just haven't had gluten for a long enough period of time I maybe don't remember how much better everything is with it.  He definitely thought these muffins were really good, but just said the texture was different than regular muffins, the texture was nice though, more like angel food cake.

Silvana's All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend can be found on page 15 of Cooking for Isaiah

MMMMM...Muffins!

We are just a little obsessed with muffins over here. My 34 month old (that's almost 3) daughter loves making them as much as I do. Even though I love making muffins from scratch and trying out new recipes to find the best chocolate chip muffin recipe, to keep it simple, we have stocked up on those little packets in which you just add milk and stir, it makes a small amount and it's one of my Jordan's favorite activities, so it works because it only makes a few small muffins. However, today I wanted the real thing. Today we made Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, a recipe I found on allrecipes.com.

This is one of the best recipes I've made so far! I LOVE these! I will be sure to post more of my favorite muffin recipe recommendations...but this one is for sure a keeper!
Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar (I use a mix of brown and white)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1/2 yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 bananas)
3/4 cup chocolate chips

*Combine the dry ingredients
*Combine wet ingredients in seperate bowl
*Mix all together just until moistened
*Fold in the chocolate chips.
*Place into greased or paper lined muffin cups (this made 12 regular sized muffins)

Bake at 350 for 20-23 minutes.

tip: This time I made these, I left out a bit of the sugar because last time I made them, they were a tiny bit too sweet. You can also use any flavor of yogurt, I used strawberry banana.

Here is my kitchen helper making her easy mix muffins! She can almost do the whole process without me, even filling the mini muffin cups with the batter! Who needs an easy bake oven??? These mixes are probably cheaper and taste better than the easy bake pouches!

Blueberry pouch muffins, we like to sprinkle sugar on top

We are muffin obsessed so I'm sure you be seeing more muffin making going on over here in the future!