Almond Flour Banana Muffins are easy, low carb, paleo and gluten free banana muffins that are naturally sweetened, fluffy and full of banana flavor. Plus they are made in a blender!

Love baking with bananas? Check out other reader’s favorite healthy banana muffins and oat flour banana muffins.

Almond flour banana muffins with a bite taken out of one on a muffin tin.

Gluten Free Banana Muffins

Almond flour banana muffins came around after I purchased a Costco size bag of almond flour, and have been playing around with it for a month making all kinds of healthy snack recipes.

5 lbs gone and our family got 2 new staple almond flour recipes we can’t get enough of, almond flour banana bread and these moist banana muffins with almond flour.

This recipe is a reader favorite! Just read the dozens of positive comments and reviews below.

Swap out your loaf pan for a muffin pan instead, and within 40 minutes, you can enjoy fluffy muffins. Plus, unlike traditional muffins, almond flour banana bread muffins are lower in carbs, sugar-free, oil-free and grain-free. Making them a great option for healthy and easy breakfast, snack or dessert.

View from the top on almond flour banana muffins in muffin tin.

What Makes These Muffins Healthy?

  • Sugar free: These healthy muffins are free from any refined sugar, honey or maple syrup (minus the chocolate chips). Not even a drop of oil. Isn’t it amazing?!
  • Low carb, high protein and full of fiber: Nutrition wise they beat most banana snacks. Eat one and you are full without even minor bloating. My kids love these and yours will too!
  • Fluffy banana muffins: Just because these are gluten-free banana muffins, doesn’t mean that I wanted to sacrifice flavor or texture. These little banana breads are light, fluffy, and raised up. Best of all, they have no odd aftertaste or dense “heavy” feel.
  • Dietary friendly: There are also several ways you can adapt this almond flour banana muffins recipe too. Just keep reading for all the top tips, tricks, and recipe variations!

Ingredients for Low Carb Banana Muffins

You will need 10 simple ingredients to make these low carb banana muffins.

Almond flour, bananas, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cooking spray, chocolate chips, vanilla extract.
  • Bananas: Use overripe bananas with lots of black spots. Previously frozen bananas are fine. When mashed, it makes about 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas.
  • Eggs: Use large eggs for the best results. You could try the recipe with all egg whites (1 egg = 1/4 cup whites), but I much prefer the former.
  • Almond flour: Use blanched almond flour, which yields moist and tender baked goods due to the higher healthy fats content. Some have had success with almond meal, but the texture may be grainy, and it can taste “healthier”. You can quickly make almond flour at home or just buy it at any grocery store.
  • Baking powder and baking soda: Act as leavening agents and provide rise for fluffy results.
  • Vanilla extract: It is wonderful to add dessert flavor to the muffins without the need for added sugars. Use vanilla seeds, if following paleo.
  • Cinnamon and salt

Variations

  • Chocolate chips: I use mini dark chocolate chips, which I find distribute better than larger ones or chocolate chunks. You could also use sugar free chocolate chips or cacao nibs (for paleo banana muffins).
  • Chopped nuts: Add about a handful of chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc.
  • Blueberries: Use fresh or frozen blueberries(don’t thaw before baking). Add around 1/4 cup. We also love these almond flour blueberry muffins with a hint of orange.
  • Raisins: Add between 1/4 – 1/2 cup of raisins. You could also add half raisins and half nuts.
  • Citrus zest: Use 1/2 – 1 orange or lemon zest depending on how much flavor you want. You may also love these healthy lemon poppy seed muffins.
  • Sweetener: This almond flour banana muffin batter has the right amount of sweetness. If you do have more of a sweet tooth, add a little bit of your favorite granulated sweetener. For keto banana muffins, use monk fruit or erythritol.
  • For vegan banana muffins: Swap the eggs for chia seed egg or flax egg instead. The recipe won’t be quite as “pretty” or risen, but it should be delicious.

How to Make Almond Flour Banana Muffins

Here is a quick overview hot to make almond flour banana muffins in a blender. It is such an easy recipe where you don’t need to dirty a bowl, use a masher, or mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately.

Cinnamon, eggs, baking powder, salt, baking soda, bananas in jug of a blender.

Prepare the batter: First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Then, in a blender or food processor, add bananas, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and process until smooth.

I love to blend my almond flour muffin batter into an almost smoothie consistency for pillowy, soft banana muffins. The food processor won’t yield as smooth results but it works.

Muffins batter in a blender and almond flour in a cup.

Then, add almond flour and process just enough to combine. Pause, scrape the walls, and process again just a bit, to combine.

adding chocolate chips to almond flour banana muffin batter

Add chocolate chips (or your choice of add-ins, if using) and stir with a spatula.

almond flour muffins batter in a blender and in red muffin tin

Divide the mixture evenly: Using an ice cream scoop, distribute the batter between 12 muffin pan openings until they’re 3/4 full each. You can line them with muffins liners or use a silicone muffin tin sprayed lightly with cooking spray.

Bake: Bake almond flour banana muffins in preheated to 350 degrees F oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Once baked, remove from the oven, allow them to cool on a cooling rack for about 20 minutes, and then enjoy!

Recipe Tip

Several readers have let me know that the banana muffins are ready at between 17-25 minutes for them, so the first time you bake these, I suggest checking from 17 minutes. The climate and your oven may affect the bake time.

How to Make Ahead and Store

Make Ahead: You can prepare the batter, minus the leavening agents, up to a day in advance. Leave it covered in the refrigerator and mix in the baking powder and soda before baking the muffins.

Storing: Store muffins at room temperature for 2-3 days or within the refrigerator for 5-7 days. As they’re quite moist, I’ve found they store better when loosely covered rather than in an airtight container.

Freezing: Freeze in layers with parchment paper between, in a large freezer bag. They will store in the freezer for up to three months.

Storage Tip

You might find my guides how to store muffins and how to freeze muffins helpful to keep your leftover baked muffins fresh longer.

How Do You Reheat the Muffins?

  • From fridge: Microwave the muffins in 15-second increments until warmed through.
  • From freezer: Thaw in the fridge first and then reheat as in the step above. Alternatively, add straight to the microwave and heat in 20-second increments until warmed through.

Can I Substitute the Almond Flour?

This recipe was designed explicitly with almond flour in mind. However, there are several ways you can substitute the flour, though each will affect the final result in one way or another.

The closest substitution for almond flour would be cashew flour. For a nut free version, you can use sunflower seed flour.

Others in the comments have also successfully substituted cassava flour, oat flour or used a combination of almond flour and all-purpose gluten free flour.

If using leftover almond pulp (dried) from almond milk, you’ll need to add a little oil in the recipe due to the lower fat content. 1-2 tablespoons of melted butter, avocado oil or melted coconut oil should work.

Any time you experiment with a different flour in gluten free baking, it may require a little tweaking. If your muffins seem a little dry, use more banana, a little oil, or liquid sweetener. A bit too moist? Increase the flour, etc.

You can’t use regular flour though. Muffins will not turn out with any wheat flour because it has gluten in it. Check out my healthy banana muffin recipe, if you would like to use traditional flour.

Tips for Best Results

  • Measure the flour using the “spoon and level method”: Use a spoon to add flour to your measuring cup and then use the back of a knife to level off the cup. Avoid scooping flour directly into your measuring cup, or you’ll add too much.
  • You can make almond flour at home: It is basically ground almonds. Just use blanched almonds (or do that yourself by boiling them for 1 minute, rinsing under cold water, and removing the skins), allow them to dry, and then blend for 10-20 seconds into a floury powder.
  • If you’re counting calories: Several readers have pointed out to me that their almond flour varies massively to mine in terms of calories (up to 100 cal less per muffin!). For this reason, I suggest plugging this recipe into a nutrition app with your specific ingredients for accurate numbers.
  • If your bananas are not ripe: Here is a quick tutorial how to ripen bananas fast.

FAQs

Can I turn this recipe into banana bread?

No. This recipe will not turn out well as a quick bread but I do have a delicious gluten free almond flour banana bread recipe or try this protein banana bread.

Can I make mini banana muffins?

Yes. Just use mini muffin pan and reduce the baking time. I recommend to check on muffins at 10 minutes and every few minutes afterward.

Can I use all-purpose flour?

No. These muffins will not turn out.

More Banana Muffins Recipes

More Almond Flour Recipes to Try

almond flour banana muffins

Almond Flour Banana Muffins

Almond Flour Banana Muffins are easy, low carb, paleo and gluten free banana muffins that are naturally sweetened, fluffy and full of banana flavor. Plus they are made in a blender!
4.93 from 826 votes
Servings 12 muffins
Calories 223
Diet Gluten Free
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients  

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray silicone muffin tin with cooking spray. Set aside.
  • In a powerful blender or food processor, add bananas, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda + powder, salt and process until smooth.
  • Add almond flour and process just enough to combine. Pause, scrape the walls and process just a bit again to combine. Add chocolate chips and stir with a spatula.
  • Using an ice cream scoop, divide batter between 12 openings of previously prepared muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick inserted come out clean.
  • Remove from the oven, let cool 20 minutes and enjoy.

Video

Notes

  • Store: Store muffins at room temperature for 2-3 days or in refrigerator for 5-7 days. As they’re quite moist, I’ve found they store better when loosely covered rather than in an airtight container.
  • Freeze: Freeze in layers with parchment paper between, in a large freezer bag. They will store in the freezer for up to three months.
  • Over ripen bananas are a must! If your batter is too thick, means bananas were not ripe enough. Muffins won’t come out good. Also can’t use other fruit.
  • Eggs: You could try the recipe with all egg whites (1 egg = ¼ cup whites) but I much prefer the former.
  • Almond flour: Some have had success with almond meal, but the texture may be grainy, and it can taste “healthier”.
  • Sweetener: This almond flour banana muffin batter is naturally sugar free. If you do have more of a sweet tooth, add a little of your favorite granulated sweetener. For keto/paleo banana muffins, use monk fruit or erythritol, etc.
  • Baking time: Several readers have let me know that the banana muffins are ready at between 17-25 minutes for them, so the first time you bake these, I suggest checking from 17 minutes. The climate and your oven may affect the bake time.
  • For vegan banana muffins: Swap the eggs for chia seed egg or flax egg instead.
Baking is a science. For best results, it is best to follow the recipe. Enjoy!

Nutrition

Serving: 1muffin | Calories: 223kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 173mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 5g
Course: Breakfast or Snack
Cuisine: North American
Author: Olena Osipov
Did you make this recipe?Mention @ifoodreal or tag #ifoodreal!

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About Olena

Welcome! I grew up in Ukraine watching my grandma cook with simple ingredients. I have spent the last 11 years making it my mission to help you cook quick and easy meals for your family!

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Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Renee

    The only thing that I changed was adding 2 tablespoons of erythritol and placed 3 chips on top of each muffin. The flavor was terrific. I allowed them to brown because they looked wet and pale at 25 minutes. Why did they rise and then fall after the 25? I did not open the oven.

    1. Glad you loved these muffins! Some ovens bake differently, so muffins will need a bit more time to brown or higher baking temperature. Fall and rise usually happens if there is a bit too much wet ingredients. Sometimes bananas are larger, try a bit smaller bananas next time.

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