Paleo Banana-Walnut-Maple Muffins

AKA, The Best Muffins Yet!

My google reader is PACKED with primal/paleo cooking blogs.  Most recipes are relatively appealing and I’ll star the ones that I want to try, but the majority of them stay just there – in my archives, waiting their turn.

However, when these showed up in Holly’s blog yesterday, I knew I absolutely had to make them – I had over-ripe bananas and a handful of crushed walnuts leftover from another baking adventure, so it was the perfect fit!  I modified her recipe a bit because I wanted to use up the rest of my maple syrup, but HOLY COW.  These knocked my socks off!  They smelled amazing while they were baking and rose to look big and fluffy like normal (aka non-paleo) muffins do.  This is one of those things you make when someone doesn’t believe you that paleo/primal eating is still delicious!

Paleo Banana-Walnut-Maple Muffins:
adapted from Holly Would If She Could

• 1/2 c coconut flour
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 c dark maple syrup
• 1/3 c olive oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 c chopped walnuts
• 2 very ripe bananas, diced

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk the eggs and add in the coconut flour.  Once mixed, add the maple syrup, olive oil, vanilla and baking soda and stir to combine.  Mix in the walnuts, and then the bananas.  Mine were a little bit mashed/mixed up by the time I was done, and they still came out great – don’t worry too much about maintaining the banana pieces!

Divide evenly between 12 lined/greased muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.  It’s torture, but try and wait a few minutes for them to cool before digging in!

Coconut Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

When I’m stressed I bake.  It’s not because I am a stress eater, but baking is therapeutic to me.  Getting to eat it afterwards is just the icing on the cake.  I know this is a strange coping mechanism, but my friends sure appreciate it!  The past few days have been stressful so I was dying to bake last night.  Joy the Baker’s Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies looked awesome and I actually had a lot of the ingredients. But I wanted to make something healthy enough that I could eat with my afternoon coffee and not feel guilty about so the base was inspired by Elena’s Pecan Shortbread Cookies.

These turned out really good!  They were crispy, buttery, and chocolatey, just what I wanted.  The coconut flavor wasn’t very strong, so add some extra if you are really into coconut.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

1 and 1/4 C almond flour
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 C toasted unsweetened coconut
1/4 C chocolate chips
1/4 C butter
2.5 T honey
1/2 T vanilla

Mix almond flour, sea salt, baking soda, coconut, and chocolate chips.

Dry ingredients mixed

Brown butter on the stove.  Check out Joy’s post if you want details, her explanation is better than any I could give!

Browned Butter

Pour the butter into a small bowl to stop it from cooking and mix in the vanilla and honey.  Let it cool for a minute (so you don’t melt the chocolate chips) and mix it into the dry ingredients.  It should form a crumbly batter.

Finished Batter

Using parchment paper or foil, roll the dough into a large log and freeze for an hour.  Slice and bake for 7-10 minutes at 350.

Finished product!

I thought these cookies tasted better after completely cooling, so with that and the freezing they are not what you want to make if you need instant baking gratification!