Spring is finally here, and fresh strawberries are starting to make their appearance at the farmers markets, and I couldn’t be more excited. I am a huge strawberry lover! And because I also love chocolate, I had to create a muffin recipe combining my love for both. These Strawberry Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins are gluten-free, grain-free, lightly sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar, and have the perfect light and fluffy texture. It’s a recipe I come back to year after year, as soon as I see fresh strawberries pop up!
Ingredients needed to make these healthy strawberry banana chocolate chip muffins
Like all my recipes, you don’t need a million ingredients – you need just a handful of simple things!
- Bananas: The banana in this recipe is both for texture, moisture and sweetness. If you avoid banana, you can substitute for 2/3 cup applesauce in it’s place.
- Almond butter: I love almond butter in this recipe, but you can substitute for any nut butter of choice, or sunflower seed butter. I haven’t tried with tahini, but I’m sure that would be delicious and work, too!
- Eggs: I created this recipe using eggs because they make the perfect fluffy muffins. I haven’t tried using flax eggs instead, but I do think it will work just fine.
- Maple syrup: These muffins are sweetened with both maple syrup and coconut sugar – and not too much. You don’t have to worry about these muffins being overly sweet. But the reason for using both sweeteners is mainly for the texture, since maple syrup is a liquid, with a delicious maple taste, and coconut sugar is a dry sweetener, with a light coconut taste. Use both.
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract is always the star in any baking recipe, it adds the best flavor!
- Coconut flour: This recipe needs coconut flour. Please do not try and substitute for any other flour, as it will not work. The reason? Coconut flour is not interchangeable 1:1 with other flours. It’s highly absorbent, which is needed because of all the moisture from the bananas, strawberries, eggs, and the maple syrup.
- Coconut sugar: See note above re: maple syrup.
- Baking powder: Baking powder is what is going to make these muffins rise, so don’t skip it!
- Strawberries: I use fresh strawberries in this recipe, because I like to make these muffins as soon as the fresh strawberries make their appearance at the farmers markets! That said, if you want to try this recipe with frozen strawberries, you can, but I recommend thawing them just enough to cut them into small pieces, then tossing them lightly with tapioca flour or arrowroot flour. This is so that they don’t get too watery and sink to the bottom during baking. But if you have access to fresh strawberries, use them!
- Chocolate chips: If you are dairy-free, be sure to use dairy-free chocolate chips in this recipe. Otherwise any chocolate chips will do, including white chocolate chips – YUM!
How to make these grain-free strawberry banana chocolate chip muffins
To make these muffins, I love using a high-speed blender, but if you don’t have one, that’s ok. You can make these using mixing bowls and a spoon! Easy peasy!
- The first thing you need to do is preheat your oven to 375 F and line a muffin tin with liners, or grease them well with oil, so that they don’t stick and are easy to pop out!
- Next, get out your blender, and add the bananas, almond butter, eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Blend for about 30 seconds until smooth.
- Then add the coconut flour, coconut sugar, and baking powder. Blend for another 30 seconds, until smooth.
- Get out a large bowl, and transfer the batter to the bowl.
- Fold in 1/2 cup of the strawberries and 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips.
- Fill each muffin cavity with batter, about 3/4 full.
- Top each muffin with remaining strawberries and chocolate chips.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. These muffins cook pretty quickly because coconut flour is so light and airy, so just keep an eye on them.
Storage instructions these muffins
These muffins are best if stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator. For one, they don’t contain any preservatives, and because strawberries are moist, they will get bad if you leave them out on your counter for more than 1-2 days max. If you refrigerate them, you can keep them for 5-7 days. These muffins also freeze really well, so if you go that route, they will last for over 2 months.
If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating below! This helps other people decide whether to make this recipe. And, since I practically live on Instagram, tag me in your creations so I can see them and repost on my IG stories. Enjoy! xx
Ingredients
- 2 bananas, medium-sized and ripe
- ¾ cup almond butter, creamy
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup strawberries, fresh & chopped
- ¼ cup chocolate chips, dairy free
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Line a muffin tin with liners or spray the cavities well so the muffins don’t stick.
- Next, in a blender, add the bananas, almond butter, eggs and maple syrup. Pulse for about 30 seconds or until the mixture is smooth.
- Next, add the coconut flour, coconut sugar, and baking powder. Pulse for another 30 seconds until incorporated.
- Pour the batter into a medium bowl, and gently fold in 1/2 cup of the strawberries and 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips.
- Then, fill each muffin cavity with batter about 3/4 way to the top.
- Add remaining strawberries and chocolate chips to the top of each muffin.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Rate & review
SELECT A RATING and tell me what you think!
What others are saying
These muffins are delicious – loved the combination of the chocolate and strawberries in them!! I’ve tried baking with coconut flour before and never liked the results, but these were PERFECT!
Tried these last weekend, they were simply awesome. Just skipped the coconut.
If I only have brown sugar, can I use that instead of coconut sugar?
OMG NICOLE! This one of my favorite recipes. I made a dozen on Monday and they are GONE! So fresh, moist, and tasty! Thank you for creating and sharing with all of us!
I am so so so happy to hear that! Thank you so much Kimberly!
Could I make these into a loaf pan?
Love these? The only thing is that the vanilla is not included in the instructions.
So so good! Love everything u post. But where do you put vanilla extract? It doesn’t say in directions
Thank you Nada! It’s in step two: “Next, get out your blender, and add the bananas, almond butter, eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Blend for about 30 seconds until smooth.”
Just made mini versions these with my 3 year old and they are delicious!
We subbed peanut butter and left out the coconut sugar and they were still divine!!
That sounds so delicious, Katie! I’m so glad it turned out so well, and that you both were able to make them together. Thank you for your review!
Love your recipes! Sometimes when I click on nutritional info nothing shows. How do I get the info from each recipe?
Thanks so much,
Nicole
Hi Nicole! We are actively adding nutritional info to all of our recipes. In the meantime, you can plug the recipe into an app like MyFitnessPal and grab the info that way!