I have to tell you a secret.
These little gems have no added sugar and no oil. Shhhhhhhh! And no, they don’t taste like cardboard. Or Grape Nuts. I swear.
Last weekend, I really had an itch for banana bread. I made a fabulous one for the boyf and the healthiest thing about it was the bananas. But who cares if it’s called best-ever banana bread, right? I ditched the cream cheese frosting and used chocolate chips instead of pecans. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. White flour, brown sugar, the whole shebang…. and it was sinfully good. Perfectly moist and loaded with chocolate chippies just like I like it.
It’s not always kale and lentils over here! It’s the kind of dessert I would make for a friend or a gathering, not something I would want sitting around my own house tempting me all day long. If you need a not-so-healthy but oh-so-delicious banana bread to please a bunch of people then that recipe is the one.
If you’re feeling sugar overloaded after eating, oh I don’t know, just Jeni’s cloverton ice cream with salty caramel sauce and donut gravel….then make this one. It’s sweetened with overripe bananas and dates, so you don’t have to worry about eating three teaspoons of added sugar with each bite. I basically took my beloved dark chocolate chunk banana bread and changed it a bit to adapt to my tropical mango coconut obession. I originially planned on making it as a loaf, but since the boyf still had my loaf pan, I made them into muffins. You could easily make this in a loaf pan, but you’ll have to bake it much longer (about an hour or so).
Using almong meal in baking makes the end product so ridiculously moist. As I’ve mentioned before, I get mine at Trader Joe’s in the baking section for $3.99. It’s a great sub for traditional flour, whether you follow a gluten-free diet, a low carb diet, or an I-just-want-a-really-moist-muffin diet. These muffs are packed with nutritious goodies like oats, almonds, applesauce, bananas and ground flaxseed. They’re vegan, gluten-free (as long as you use certified gluten-free oats) and truly a snack you won’t feel guilty about.
Guilt-free muffies are where it’s at, people!
Vegan Date-Sweetened Banana Mango Coconut Muffins
Prep Time:
Yield:
Print
PinIngredients
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 10 dates
- 1½ cups mashed very overripe bananas (3 medium bananas)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 heaping cup rolled oats, ground into a flour in food processor
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
- ¼ cup ground flaxseed
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup chopped mango
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray or line with liners.
- Blend together applesauce and dates in a food processor until well mixed. Add bananas and vanilla and blend until smooth.
- Spread coconut out in an even layer on a plate. Toast in microwave at 20 second intervals, stirring after each one, until lightly browned. You could also do this in a pan over medium heat.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (almond meal through cinnamon) until very well mixed.
- Pour wet ingredients (banana mixture) into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in mango chunks.
- Pour batter into greased muffin tin. Bake for about 22 to 25 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.
- Cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
Holly @ EatGreatBEGreat says
I love anything with banana and coconut! These muffins sound delish! I can’t believe they have no sugar or oil…amazing!
Alexis says
Me too! It’s crazy how moist they are with no oil. I’ll take it!
Khushboo Thadani says
I’m not usually the biggest mango fan buuut I can definitely get past it, especially when bananas, oats and coconut are involved! Love the combination of flavors and I bet it would even make for a fabulous bowl of oatmeal :)
Alexis says
I’m shocked that you’re not a big mango fa, Khushboo! Great idea with the oatmeal….that would be unreal fo shoooooo.
Hannah @ CleanEatingVeggieGirl says
I swear, you post the best/most creative vegan muffin recipes!! Yum :).
Alexis says
Awwww thanks, Hannah! You’re so sweet!
sally @ sallys baking addiction says
Girl, I just made banana coconut muffins over the weekend!! Get out of town. :) Too funny. And that best ever banana bread? Yes, I could eat it for the rest of my life! It’s so good with chocolate chips too.
Alexis says
That’s so funny! I just made your skinny chocolate muffins with the girls I babysit and we all adored them :)
Matt @ The Athlete's Plate says
Ummm….
These look delicious :)
Alexis says
They taste even better!
Erin @ Sugar Magnolia says
Oh girl these look AMAZING!! I want to make them right this second!!
Alexis says
Thanks, Erin! You probs should :)
Best Eminem Songs says
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this
onto a co-worker who had been doing a little research on this.
And he actually ordered me breakfast simply because I discovered it for
him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!
But yeah, thanks for spending some time to talk about this subject here on your
web site.
Holly says
Could I replace the almond flour with additional flour? These look [email protected]@
★★★★
Alexis says
I don’t see why not as long as the measurements are correct :)
Holly says
These look phenomenal!! Could o replace the almonds meal with more oat flour or do you have any other suggestions?
★★★★★
Alexis says
I wo9uld try another nut meal or event coconut flour I believe would be great! If nuts are the problem you could try the oat flour but may have to mess around with the liquid ratios :)
lara says
could i leave out the coconut? or do you have a sub? :) thanks
Alexis says
Yep!