Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

This banana bread is a compromise between what my kids want and what I want them to eat. It has flax seeds and whole wheat flour for me, and chocolate chips and white flour for them. A smart friend once told me that you can get kids to eat anything healthy if you just add chocolate chips and, well…it usually works. It works especially well in this recipe which is a modified version of my oatmeal banana bread.

Makes: 1 loaf, 20 muffins, 48 mini-muffins

Preparation time: 20m
Cooking time: 20m
Total time: 40m

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tbsp ground flax (plus 6 Tbsp water to make a flax egg)
  • 6 ripe bananas (medium - large)
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
  • 2 tsp almond extract
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 170g white whole wheat flour (Gluten-Free use: oat flour)
  • 170g all purpose flour (Gluten-Free use: King Arthur GF AP flour)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Equipment:

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF/180ºC. Prepare muffin cups or loaf pan.
  2. In a large bowl make the flax eggs by mixing 2 tablespoons ground flax with 6 tablespoons of water. Set aside.
  3. Place 6 ripe bananas in a blender and blend until smooth.
  4. Add the bananas to the flax egg along with the applesauce, coconut oil, almond and vanilla extracts
  5. In a separate bowl combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
  6. Stir the chocolate chips into the dry mixture.
  7. Pour the dry mixture on top of the wet mixture and fold together gently with a wooden spoon.
  8. Spoon the dough into your baking vessel.
  9. Bake at 375ºF until a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. This should be about 45-50 minutes for a loaf, 27-32 minutes for muffins, and 18-20 minutes as mini muffins.