That darn mini food. But it’s so small that the calories don’t even count. Exactly.
I’m so happy with how these little puffballs turned out. They’re soft, springy, bouncy like little trampolines, and they’re vegan. Sometimes vegan baked goods, especially muffins or cakes, are terribly dense. Lead balloons come to mind. When removing eggs, it’s easy to also remove lightness and fluffiness. However, no eggs here, and they’re as soft and fluffy as any traditional muffin.
Making them is literally a 5 minute job and because they’re mini, they bake very fast. You’re looking at 15 minutes from start to finish. Gotta love speedy muffins and recipes that don’t dirty every dish in your kitchen. They freeze beautifully so you might want to make a double batch and freeze half for snacks and grab-and-go breakfasts. The whisk-together batter comes together so quickly and easily in one bowl. No mixer, no hassle. It’s a great vegan ‘master batter’ and you can adapt it by switching up the chocolate chips for diced dried fruit or nuts. Glaze them or brush them with (vegan) melted butter and dip them in cinnamon-sugar like these.
To make the batter, simply mash one banana, then add sugar, coconut oil, almond milk, vanilla, and cinnamon before stirring in the dry ingredients and the mini chocolate chips. The banana behaves like an egg to both fluff the batter and bind the ingredients, while keeping the muffins light and fluffy. The muffins don’t taste like banana. I couldn’t taste it at all, and I was looking for it. I used a fairly non-ripe banana. Pale yellow, and no black freckles. The riper bananas get, the sweeter they become, and also the more distinctively banana-ey they are, and it’s harder to mask. Many people only bake with very ripe bananas, but in recipes that I don’t want to taste overly banana-ey, I’ll use under to averagely-ripe bananas.
I used coconut oil as the fat source and I’m no stranger to using it in muffins, cakes, bread, cookies and more. I love baking with it, and replace it 1:1 with butter or other oil. While I usually say that you can’t taste it, you definitely can taste it here. There’s no strong spices, pumpkin puree, or anything else to make the flavor, and it’s noticeable. For anyone who likes coconut oil, you’ll love these. It gently perfumes the muffins and adds a faintly sweet under-current of tropical flavor. It’s not overwhelming and I love it, but in full disclosure, you can taste it. If you absolutely don’t want to use coconut oil, I’m sure that you could sub with vegetable or canola oil. I used Nutiva Coconut Oil from iHerb.com. Code AVE630 at checkout saves you $10 off your order. I love iHerb for everything like probiotics, bulk cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, liquid vanilla stevia drops, bulk white stevia powder, medicinal fancy-grade honey, chia seeds, face cleanser, and nutritional yeast.
I used mini chocolate chips because full-size chocolate chips could overwhelm these little one-bite wonders. If all you have is regular chips, run a knife over them and give them a coarse chop so the big chips don’t sink to the bottom of the mini pans. I used two Non-Stick Mini Muffin Pans. I filled the cavities to 3/4 full. It’s a little tricky filling mini muffin pans because small amounts of batter can dramatically alter results. Underfilling and the already small muffins become a skimpy joke, while overfilling can cause mushroom top where the tops bake together on top of the pan and your muffins look like conjoined mushrooms. Admit it, you’ve done it. Just do your best here.
If you’re baking in a full size pan, you’ll need to extend the baking time by a few minutes and bake until they’re done, whatever that means in your oven and your chosen pan. Before baking I sprinkled all the tops with chocolate chips because I wanted the visual pop of chocolate. We eat first with our eyes and my eyes liked seeing all those glistening mini chips on top of the fluffy muffins.
They’re ridiculously moist, springy, tender, delicate and light, without being airy, and as good as any traditional muffin with eggs and butter. They’re sweet, satisfying, and with the undercurrent of coconut oil flavor, I couldn’t resist them. 24 mini muffins did not even last 24 hours.
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30+ of my favorite Coconut and Coconut Oil Recipes here Thanks for the entries in the $100 Gift Card Giveaway and in the West Elm $50 Gift Card Giveaway What’s your favorite muffin recipe?
