Traybake Monday: Banana, coconut & chocolate chip muffins recipe
Another Monday, another super easy bake for your not-too-unhealthy snacking pleasure. It has three bananas in it, and is a great way to use up fruit that’s perhaps a little past its best in the fruit bowl but still has plenty of life ahead of it in the world of baked goods.
They’re filling without being stodgy, go well with a mid-morning cup of coffee, and they’re a nice alternative to the endless banana bread that seems to be all over the place. (Sorry banana bread, I love ya really, but a change is as good as a rest and all that.)
Rather than rambling on and on about random and not very useful stuff like so many foodie blogs seem to be doing recently, let’s cut to the chase and get on with the recipe!
Banana, coconut & chocolate chip muffins recipe
Here are the basic ingredients, followed by ideas for substitutions in case it’s hard to find some of the items where you are at the moment.
Ingredients
- 3 ripe bananas
- 1 egg, beaten (or equivalent amount of vegan egg replacer)
- 2 tsp natural coconut flavouring
- 75ml (5 tablespoons) of sunflower oil
- 50g dark chocolate chips
- 200g self raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice (optional)
- 125g caster sugar
- 25g desiccated coconut for the topping
Substitutions for scarce ingredients
If you don’t have sunflower oil, substitute 75g of melted margarine or butter, or 75ml of corn (canola) or vegetable oil.
If you don’t have an egg, use a chia or linseed ‘egg’ or commercial vegan egg replacer, or add another half of a ripe banana if you have one.
You can leave out the chocolate chips for simpler banana and coconut muffins, or swap them for an equal weight of raisins or nuts to vary the recipe. You could also use 50g of roughly chopped bar chocolate to replace the choc chips if you still need that cocoa fix.
No coconut flavouring? Add 25g extra desiccated coconut and 1 tablespoon of milk (cow’s/almond/oat) to the batter instead.
Running low on SR flour? You can replace up to half of it with ground up oats or oat flour, although this will give you a slightly heavier texture.
Out of self raising flour, but have plain flour? Add 2 & 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder to 190g plain white flour. Also works with wholemeal plain flour.
No desiccated coconut for the topping? You can omit it altogether, or sprinkle the muffins with a little granulated sugar mixed with cinnamon before baking instead.
If you don’t have, or don’t like, allspice, swap with an equal amount of ground cinnamon or mixed spice, or leave it out completely.
Running low on sugar? You can make this recipe with 75g of sugar and it’ll still taste good.
Method
Makes 12 standard sweet muffins.
- Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 fan oven / Gas Mark 4.
- Line a muffin tin with paper cups, or use a 12-hole silicone muffin tray.
- In a large bowl, mash the peeled bananas, then mix in the beaten egg, coconut flavouring, oil and chocolate chips.
- In another bowl, thoroughly mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and spice.
- Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir quickly to combine, then divide the mix equally between the 12 muffin cups.
- Top each muffin with a sprinkle of desiccated coconut, if using, then transfer to the oven.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until cooked (a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin should come out clean).
This banana, coconut and chocolate chip muffins are lovely and speedy to prepare, and they’re a big hit in my house. Are you going to give them a try?
