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Moist, fluffy and naturally sweetened with banana, these Paleo Banana Nut Muffins are studded with chopped walnuts. Most Paleo muffin recipes use almond flour—but coconut flour is the secret to these muffins light texture.
I need a little bit of cheering up today, so I’m focusing my energy on something that always makes me happy: healthier muffins! Fluffy, light, and delicious – muffins are being embraced wholeheartedly today.
I love all recipes with ripe bananas, because I know we’re all familiar with the feeling of thinking we’ll eat that bunch of bananas eventually…and then we watch them turn from golden yellow into a dark brown that has us hesitating to grab them for anything other than banana bread…or even better, these delicious banana nut muffins!
These coconut flour banana muffins were my major hit recipe of the month! I ended up making them midway through the week when I majorly needed a pick-me-up — and boy did they do the job. Thankfully, they only take a few minutes to get into the oven. The cinnamon makes everything smell so warm and comforting while these are baking.
No sugar added muffins?!
This paleo banana muffin recipe is adapted from my paleo chocolate chunk banana bread, which is one of my favorite recipes and the all-time most popular recipe on my site! It’s a winner, for good reason.
Like that bread, these banana coconut flour muffins have NO added sugar. None. All the sweetness here comes from your ripe bananas, so make sure you let them get nice and ripe. The darker and spottier, the sweeter your muffins will be!
Ingredients in these banana nut muffins:
- Ripe bananas: since these are our main source of sweetness, make sure you use very ripe bananas!
- Eggs: I wouldn’t recommend a vegan replacement here since this muffin recipe requires the structure eggs provide. Use this vegan banana muffin recipe instead!
- Coconut Oil
- Vanilla Extract
- Almond Butter: or any other nut or seed butter of your choice. Use sunflower seed butter for a nut-free options.
- Coconut Flour: you can’t sub anything else here! Coconut flour is uniquely absorbent and no other flour will match the texture you get from using coconut flour here.
- Cinnamon
- Baking Soda, Baking Powder & Salt
- Walnuts: for crunch! Any favorite nut will work, or skip, or replace with chocolate chips!
Are bananas Paleo-friendly? Yes, they are! Although most strict Paleo diets recommend only eating them in moderation due to their high starch and sugar content, they are Paleo-friendly. In this recipe, we capitalize on their sweetness by allowing them to sweeten the muffins on their own.
How to store banana nut muffins:
To store: Store these moist banana nut muffins at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. Since these are moist muffins, I’ve found they keep better when loosely covered rather than in an airtight container when storing at room temperature.
How to freeze muffins:
To freeze: place the muffins in an airtight container or zip back, label and date, and store in the freezer for up to six months.
To reheat: microwave a muffin from frozen for about 30 seconds, thaw at room temperature for about an hour, or thaw in the refrigerator overnight. I love prepping these healthy banana nut muffins ahead of time and storing them in the freezer to have muffins-on-demand.
These banana coconut flour muffins smell amazing coming out of the oven, and they taste even better! They’re sweet enough even without the sugar, allowing the banana flavor to shine. The texture is spot-on – fluffy, tender, and the toasted walnuts add a little extra crunch and warmth. These are a real treat, whether it’s for breakfast, a snack, or welcome lunchbox addition. Happy baking!
If you like these gluten-free muffins, you’ll love these too…
- Paleo Morning Glory Muffins
- Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
- Paleo Banana Blueberry Muffins
- Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins
- Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Cake Muffins
- The Best Double Chocolate Muffins
Paleo Banana Nut Muffins
Ingredients
- 3-4 large ripe bananas, 1⅔ cups mashed or 380 grams
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup almond butter or other nut or seed butter of choice
- ⅓ cup 50g coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 12 pan muffin tin with paper liners or grease with coconut oil.
- In a large bowl or mixer, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and ⅓ cup almond butter until fully combined.
- Add the coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the wet ingredients and mix well. Fold in the walnuts.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin tins.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 16-19 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out clean.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Flip out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days, or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
To Freeze
- Once completely cool, seal in an airtight container or zip bag, removing as much air from the bag as possible. Freeze for up to 4 months for best taste!
These muffins have a great texture and flavor. I only had two bananas so I used applesauce (no sugar added) as well. Thank you for creating and sharing this amazing recipe! I’m excited to try more of your recipes.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Grace! Thanks for sharing your changes – glad to know that substitute worked out well. Hope you find lots of recipes you love!
This recipe looks delicious! Going to make these this weekend! What is the nutrition facts for them?
Hi Lauren, you can calculate the nutritional facts here: myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator. Enjoy!
Can I make these with all-purpose gluten free flour? Would I need to change any of the measurements?
Hi Robin – coconut flour is uniquely absorbent and no other flour can be subbed 1:1 for it. To use GF AP flour, the recipe would need to be reworked significantly, pretty much into a new recipe. I’d recommend getting your hands on some coconut flour. It’s pretty cheap and a little while last you a while!
Thanks! Just picked up some coconut flour. Can I sub butter for coconut oil? Not a huge fan of coconut oil taste.
You can use butter, but in the future I thought I’d note that you can buy refined coconut oil – it’s had the coconutty scent and flavor removed from it. Enjoy the muffins!
Great to know, thanks! The muffins came out delicious :)
Oh no! What did I do wrong with these? Followed the recipe to a T and even cooked them about 6 minutes longer but they were still a wet mess inside and I couldn’t get them out of the pan. I just put them back in to cook some more…has this happened to anyone else? When I made the batter it definitely seemed too wet and liquid-y but I went ahead and put it in…
Hi Danielle – the batter for these should be relatively thick and not liquidy, since there really is no liquid in them besides the small amount of melted coconut oil. Is it possible you misread an ingredient or missed something? The coconut flour should definitely help thicken the batter up, too. Are there any changes you made or anything? I’d love to help you figure out what went wrong – I know how frustrating it is when a recipe doesn’t turn out!
Hmm, definitely didn’t miss anything but I live in high altitude so maybe that has something to do with it. It just seemed like it needed more dry ingredients. I wound up cooking them for about 25 minutes longer and they shaped up a bit so in the end, they were ok – I guess I will add more flour next time?
That was going to be my next question! I’d try adding extra coconut flour until it’s thicker – just add about a tablespoon at a time, stir it in, and wait to see how thick it gets after a little bit. Add more if you need to. I hope they still ended up tasting good!
Do you have the nutrition information for these?
Just curious what would be considered one serving
Hi Samantha, I just updated the recipe card with the nutritional info. 187 calories per muffin! Check out the recipe card for the rest of the info.
I just came across this recipe and will make with my girls when they wake up from naps. I have lots of ripe bananas to use up. I’m glad there is no other sweetener added, so not necessary when using super ripe bananas.
I never notice that these are lacking sugar! I hope you and your girls love them and have fun making them, Lane.
This will sound like an odd question but are these full sized muffins or mini?
These are full sized muffins!
If I make them mini’s will anything change other than the time baked?
Nope just bake for a shorter amount of time and you’ll be good! Enjoy.
I don’t like almond butter. What can I sub in for almond butter in this recipe?
You can use any nut butter that you enjoy, or sunflower seed butter or tahini.
I just used sunbutter in this recipe, and discovered a funny reaction between baking soda and the acid in the sunflower seeds, which turned the muffins a dark green/ black color. Too bad it’s a bit late for Halloween! They are still delicious.
Hi Shelley, Sunbutter can tend to do that when there’s baking soda in there. Glad you’re still enjoying them though!
The same thing happened to me, too! I was pretty horrified until I did a little research.
The green is caused by a chemical reaction between the chlorophyll in the sunflower seeds and the leavening agents.
It’s perfectly safe to eat. If the green color is bothersome, apparently you can add a little lemon juice (1-3 teaspoons) to the batter and this will help. OR you can add a touch of cocoa powder to mask the green.
In any case, these muffins were SO good! Thank you for giving us a breakfast alternative! (Eggs can get so boring!)
So glad you’re loving the muffins, Juli, and thanks for sharing the info about using sunflower seed butter. It can be scary and off-putting when you don’t know that it’s totally natural for that to happen. Enjoy!
Is peanut butter fine? As I don’t have almond butter..?
Yup any type of nut butter will work!
My first batch came out a bit too moist. The next time I added one more tablespoon of coconut flour and they were just right. Made 24 mini muffins for a party and got compliments!
So glad you enjoyed them, Tippi! Thanks for your feedback.