Oh, yum! These Chocolate Maple Crunch Banana Muffins were delicious! However, there was one wee user problem — I didn’t allow them to cook long enough. Yup. I was so afraid they might burn that I took them out about 5 minutes too early even though I checked the “tops” for doneness.
The “tops” felt a little soft but I assumed that the muffins would continue baking a tad more while resting. I was wrong.
So — learn from my mistake so you can enjoy these to the fullest! Here’s a pic of the filling ingredients minus the salt and the coconut oil.
The original recipe uses Grade B maple syrup. I used Grade A Dark Amber as that’s what I had in the house.
The filling appeared to come out a tad liquid-y but that is the correct texture. However, I used an ice cream scoop like the recipe called for as it said to “plop” the filling into the paper muffin liners. Uh, well, no, that didn’t quite work for me at all. Perhaps because my ice cream scoop is only “half rounded.” It took me 2-3 scoops and the batter did not plop for me but instead “poured.”
Now at this point I asked myself if perhaps I should have added more coconut flour to make the filling thicker so it could “plop” but since this was the first time making the recipe I decided to be true to it and play with it another time.
The topping came out just as I expected — a little sticky but perfect.
Here they are before going into the oven with no topping …
And this is what they look like unbaked with the topping.
I could hardly wait for them to bake! And here they are. Notice the indentation in some of them? That’s where they were a little “soft” and I assumed a little baking would continue after they cooled for a little while. (Wrong assumption!)
I tucked them away in a container for snacking or to have as a “side” instead of bread with a meal.
I believe next time I’ll try a little more coconut flour and, of course, let them bake 5 minutes more so I can reach perfection with them!
And here’s the recipe …
Ingredients (for the filling)
- 4 bananas (very ripe)
- 6 pitted dates
- 4 eggs (at room temperature)
- ¼ cup melted Coconut Oil
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 5 heaping tablespoons coconut flour (perhaps mine weren’t heaped enough?)
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Sprinkle of cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
Ingredients (for the topping)
- 1 cup mixed nuts, chopped
- 2 heaping tablespoons almond flour (meal)
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- sprinkle of cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
Directions
- In a food processor, puree the bananas and dried dates until you get a paste. Make sure the dates break up completely.
- Add the eggs, coconut oil, and maple syrup then puree.
- Add the coconut flour and mix.
- Then add the cocoa powder and mix again.
- Add the baking soda, powder, cinnamon and salt and mix everything together in the food processor.
- In a separate bowl, add the ingredients for the topping and mix it all together.
- Line your muffin tin with paper muffin liners and use an ice cream scoop to plop batter into each muffin liner. It should make 12 muffins so try not to pile it too high because the topping will take up a lot of room.
- Now add a heaping tablespoon of topping on each muffin and spread it out around the top of the muffin.
- Place in an oven and cook for 35-40 minutes. (I took them out at 35 minutes but should have kept them in longer. The original recipe cautions that they do take a long time to bake because they are dense and wet and to check them at 35 minutes and every couple of minutes after that. Good advice!)
- Press on the top the muffin to check for doneness. It should not give at all (at least in my oven that’s what I found out).
- Once they are cooked, let them cool for at least 20 minutes then remove from the muffin tin.
Special thanks to PaleoOMG for this recipe. She has other recipes that are good to try so head on over there and check out that website.
