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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!
For me the batter wasn’t thick. Had to cook much longer. Will add more flour next time, perhaps closer to the amount in traditional recipes. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Tim, you can try adding coconut flour about a tablespoon at a time until you get to the right consistency. Sometimes brands can vary in absorbency levels, but it’s easy to add too much!
These were delicious! My daughter is not a huge banana fan so they didn’t rate as high on her scale- but beyond the banana, she loved them. She is a runner and I am always looking for heathy, protein and potassium rich snacks. We loved the light, fluffy texture. Next time, I plan to add some chocolate chips. Thank you! Having one for breakfast this morning!
So thrilled to hear you’re enjoying them, Dee! For your daughter, you could sub in some applesauce for the banana to make them less “banana-y”. Chocolate chips sound like a great idea. Enjoy!
I tried the applesauce and my family really enjoyed them. I thought they were missing something but I made the recipe with organic canned sweet potatoes yesterday and they were delicious. I am thinking I just didn’t put enough cinnamon in the apple version. This is a great base recipe- substitute the banana for a variety of other items. Pumpkin is next!!. The banana is still my favorite but sweet potato is a close second. Thanks again.
Mmm sweet potato sounds amazing here! So glad you’re enjoying the muffins and having fun experimenting with them :) it’s definitely a super versatile recipe!
These are fantastic. I’ve made (and eaten) two batches already and still can’t believe that they work! They freeze well and keep in the refrigerator JUST like you said. Amazing.
I am on my second round of Whole30, and like many people, I’m a little more “relaxed” about the swypo foods made W30-compliant ingredients this time around. I really never liked SWEET sweet foods anyway, so the “sugar dragon” was never an enemy I needed to concern myself with. (Bread & butter and pasta….that’s a DIFFERENT story…)
That being said, I feel SO much better about putting these in my body than I would something from a pouch. Thank you so much. These are a game-changer!
I’m so thrilled to hear they’ve been a hit with you, Tina! Thanks so much for sharing your feedback with me.
Wow. I had 4 bananas that I didn’t want to waste, but didn’t really want to eat either — way too brown! I googled for paleo banana muffins and this recipe came up. It was simple enough and I had all the ingredients, so I gave it a shot. WOW! Are these good! One of the best paleo muffins I’ve eaten. Thank you! We just loved these!
So thrilled to hear you enjoyed them Kathy!! Thanks for the feedback :)
Same here!!!!! First thing that popped up when I googled lol. Soooo good! I did have to cook mine longer to get them done, but again all ovens are different! Loved them! Thanks for this!
So thrilled you’re a fan!! Thanks so much for the feedback, Tasha :)
These were great! Bear in mind that the banana ripeness will directly affect sweetness – I used bananas that were just starting to get spotty (instead of super ripe blackened bananas) and ended up with a very lightly sweet muffin. If your bananas aren’t super ripe you could try adding a few dark chocolate chips or add more cinnamon and vanilla to amp up the other flavor components. The texture was very good and definitely had a more traditional muffin crumb compared to other grain free muffins I’ve tried.
Thanks so much for your feedback Danielle, and for the helpful tip about the ripeness of the bananas – that’s definitely true. Glad you’re enjoying them!
Super YUMMY easy to make. I baked them 20 min.
So glad you enjoyed them, Anne Marie!
I tried this recipe today, a snowy Thursday in February after my 90 yr old Mom requested muffins. I’ve been trying the Memory Repair Protocol with her, but it’s rough going because she wants her familiar grainy cheesy foods. Anyway, I couldn’t find paper muffin liners so I used silicone ones, and what a mistake that was! They came out too moist, more like banana nut custard even though I baked them 2-4 minutes longer, and they stuck to the silicone. Next time I’ll follow the directions and use paper liners. I added a few tsp lemon juice to the bananas when I was mashing them, and added 4 snipped up dates. Mother has a major sweet tooth and I added the dates just in case the brownish bananas weren’t sweet enough. Maybe my homemade coconut flour wasn’t finely ground enough? Did mom like them? YES! Hurray! The only qualifier was that she would have preferred it to be served warm. I think the moistness makes it have a colder mouth-feel when fully cooled.
Hi Charlotte, sorry that you had trouble. I worry that the added lemon juice and dates could have also caused the muffins to be too moist. Also, homemade coconut flour? How did you do that? I haven’t heard of it, and I wonder if maybe it’s not quite as absorbent as store bought coconut flour. So glad they were still able to be enjoyed by your mother, though!
Hello from Greece! My daughter loves these muffins! Have you ever tried making them in a silicone cake mould? I wonder if it is possible.
Hi Vanessa!! Jealous you’re in Greece – such a beautiful place! I haven’t tried making in a silicone cake mold but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work – just adjust the bake time based on the size of the mold. Enjoy!
Thank you Rachel! I will make an attempt and let you know.
I’ve never commented on a recipe before, but these muffins are delicious! Just made a batch tonight. I didn’t want to use up all of my (pricey!) humanely- raised eggs in a recipe, since doubling it would have required 6 eggs, so I subbed flax eggs for part of it. I doubled the recipe and used 4 flax eggs (1 TBSP flax meal + 2.5TBSP water per egg, sit for 5 minutes) and 2 regular eggs and it tasted great.
Thank you so much for the kind comment, Keila! So glad you enjoyed the muffins and thanks for the tip about using part flax eggs – so glad that worked out well. Enjoy! :)
We did whole30 in January and I loved these muffins during that time (minus the vanilla extract then). ;) Continuing to make them after whole30 as a healthy breakfast alternative that still tastes yummy! These are just so so good. I have tried all the banana nut muffin Paleo and whole30 recipes, and these are BY FAR the best. Thanks so much for sharing!
That makes me SO happy to hear, Carrie! Thanks so much for the kind feedback :) I appreciate it so much!