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Soft and moist, comforting and warm - these gluten free banana muffins are what breakfast dreams are made of. And the sweet banana flavor makes the kitchen smell like heaven!
Easy Breakfast, Delicious Snack
Who else thinks heaven’s kitchen might smell like banana muffins? 🤚
If you’re a newly gluten-free person who misses warm, fragrant muffins and other baked goods, this recipe is tailor made for you!
These are called “best banana muffins” for a reason. They are perfect eaten warm for breakfast, or cold as a snack or with lunch, and amazing with or without nuts. Bake them with chocolate chips for a sweet dessert! Want more gluten free baked goodies? Try gluten-free banana bread or blueberry muffins.
Simple Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make this gluten free banana muffin recipe. Remember to read the recipe card for the full recipe.
- Plain Greek yogurt - for the nutrition info I used nonfat yogurt, but you can use full fat if you prefer
- Sugar - it would seem like brown sugar would be natural for banana muffins, but I found the texture to be the very best when I used white sugar in this recipe.
- Regular eggs - notice the recipe says “½ cup egg”. You can use medium eggs or large eggs, as long as it measures ½ cup (which is equal to roughly 2 large eggs).
- Ground flaxseed meal - I like to add flaxseed meal to my recipes whenever I can since it’s so nutritious. My chocolate no bake cookies and soft gingersnap cookies are 2 other recipes that contain flaxseed meal.
- Overripe bananas - Use bananas that are starting to get brown streaks and speckles on their peels for the best flavor.
- A gluten-free flour blend, like my Brown Rice Flour blend, which you can find here
- Almond flour - I tried making this recipe many times using coconut flour, but it wasn’t until I used almond flour that the muffins turned out so moist and soft! Don’t skip or swap out the almond flour!
- Millet flour - I use millet flour in a lot of gluten free recipes, but I know not everyone can locate it in their local grocery store. You could substitute sorghum flour if you would like.
- Pantry staples - baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg
- Xanthan gum - a gluten-free baking essential!
Easy Recipe Swaps
If you’re not a fan of nuts, feel free to leave them out! The step by step photos below show muffins made without nuts, and they are still just as yummy.
You could also swap the nuts with ⅔ cup mini chocolate chips, which you can see in some of the photos throughout this post. Gluten free banana chocolate chip muffins are a less healthy snack, but a delicious dessert!
A Great Way to Mash Bananas
An easy way to mash up bananas is by using an immersion blender, or stick blender. It's faster than mashing them by hand, and is super easy to clean. Here’s the one I use:
Best Banana Masher
Buy Now → Gluten Free Banana Muffins - Step by Step
Making gluten free muffins is easy! It just might be a little different than what you are used to. Look over these steps to get an idea of what you need to do for really moist gluten-free banana muffins. And for more gluten free baking tips, be sure to read "Best Beginner's Tips for Successful Gluten Free Baking"
Step 1. Combine yogurt, sugar, eggs, flax, banana, and vanilla in a mixer.
Step 2. In a mixing bowl stir together the dry ingredients plus nuts or chocolate chips, if using.
Step 3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mix for 2 minutes to hydrate the gf flour. Use a timer - this step really makes a difference!
Step 4. Let rest for 30 minutes, or chill for an hour in the fridge. The muffins will rise higher and be more moist the longer the batter rests.
Step 5. Prepare a muffin pan (see recipe). TIP: use a cookie scoop to scoop batter into the muffin cups.
Step 6. Bake @ 350℉ for 30 minutes. When gluten free baked goods are hot, they tend to either crumble or have a gummy texture. But let them cool and they will be soft and delicious!
Gluten Free Baking for Beginners
Let’s say you’ve tried the gluten-free banana muffin recipe, your family loved it, and now you want to know what else you can make that’s gluten free. I can help! - sign up for my FREE little PDF, Gluten Free Baking for Beginners. It will cover just the basics of what you need to know to get started baking some very simple traditional recipes - biscuits, cornbread, and flatbread (which makes an excellent and super fast pizza crust). Plus some more info in there to help you along the way - just go get it and see what I mean! Click on the image below to go to the sign up page:
Gluten Free Banana Muffins
Soft and moist, comforting and warm - these gluten free banana muffins are what breakfast dreams are made of. And the sweet banana flavor makes the kitchen smell like heaven!
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 muffins 1x
Ingredients
- ½ cup plain, nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 cup natural sugar (or white sugar)
- ½ cup egg, or 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
- 1 ½ cup mashed bananas
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 140 grams (1 cup) Brown Rice Flour Blend (see Notes, below)
- 60 grams (½ cup) almond flour
- 80 grams (½ cup) millet flour ( sorghum flour can be substituted)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅔ cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine yogurt, sugar, eggs, flax, banana, and vanilla in an electric mixer.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the gluten-free flour blend, almond flour, millet flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and blend on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat the muffin batter for 2 full minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Let the batter rest at room temperature for 30 minutes if you’re in a hurry, or cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for an hour (my preferred method).
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Grease a muffin tin or silicone muffin pan with butter, coconut oil, or vegetable oil spray. You could also use silicone muffin liners or paper liners.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups. My favorite way is using a 2 inch cookie scoop (see Equipment below) . It's the perfect size.
- Bake @ 350℉ for 30 minutes. Gluten-free muffins often need to bake for a longer time than muffins made with regular flour.
- To test if they are done, insert a toothpick or tip of a knife in the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean and the top of the muffins spring back when touched lightly, they are ready to take out of the oven.
- Let them cool completely before handling them. Gluten free baked goods are fragile when hot and might crumble.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Can be eaten cold or warm.
Notes
My Brown Rice Flour blend is 3 parts brown rice flour, 1 part tapioca starch, and 1 part potato starch. This and other gluten free baking info is found in Gluten Free Baking for Beginners.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: breakfast
- Method: bake
- Diet: Gluten Free
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 154
- Sugar: 15.5 g
- Sodium: 118.8 mg
- Fat: 1.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 28.8 g
- Fiber: 1.6 g
- Protein: 3.2 g
- Cholesterol: 23.5 mg
We all love a good sugary treat now and then, but if you need a break and want to cut carbs and calories - here’s a collection of our favorite sugar free recipes: Delicious Easy Recipes for Sugar Free Meals.
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How to Store Gluten-Free Banana Muffins
Wait, you have leftovers? That never happens with banana muffins! But okay, if you need to store some for later, put any leftovers you may have in an airtight container and keep in the fridge or freezer.
These can be eaten cold right out of the fridge, or you can warm one in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds per muffin.
Best Banana Recipes
Recipe creator: Kristie Winget loves when bananas turn brown in her kitchen fruit basket so she has an excuse to make some banana recipes 🙂