Paleo Banana Muffins (Nut free)

Paleo Banana Muffins are not only gluten-, wheat- and refined sugar-free, but also have no nuts.  I think that texture in baking is so important.  You want moist, but not mushy, firm but not dry, and the perfect balance of sweet and salty.  Have you ever used banana flour?  It is the magic in making these muffins well-balanced!  We have made Garic Paleo Banana Bread, and even Bacon Chocolate Banana Loaf, but this is our first recipe (of many to come) with banana flour.

As a child growing up I spent a LOT of time with my grandfather.  My grandmother went into a care home in the early 90's leaving my grandfather to live as a bachelor.  Mom kept track of Gramps, and really now that I think of it, I'm not sure if he was watching myself and my brother, or more accurately, we were watching him.

My grandfather was a maniac.  Hunting, fishing, and berry picking.  His work ethic was: you start at dawn, and you work till dark.  And if that meant getting up at 4 am to be in the berry patch for dawn, and picking until all the buckets were full, or you were in the dark…  He did it.  My mom insisted that he be a little more reasonable with us kids along for the ride.  I was in my early teens, my Bro, 4 years younger.  We would leave in the daylight, and were expected home shortly before dark;  Dusk was our cut off.  We packed a lunch, water, and emergency stuff like a blanket and flashlight.  Gramps spent a lot of time driving logging roads, or barely roads sometimes, with no fear of getting stuck or lost.  As a kid I learned to pay attention to markers and keep track of where we were.  At 13 I started to drive, learning how to get out of mud holes, or dealing with a road that was no longer a road.  As a result, I feel pretty comfortable on back roads and in the bush.  Which really only provides me with a false sense of security.

Last weekend Raj and I went for a drive, we looked at a back roads road map, and according to the map, there was a solid dirt road route that we could take and enjoy some nature.  Well… I fail at map reading.  Our “through road” turned into a cow pasture.  Another road was a mud hole.  Somehow we missed the real road and ended up on this goat trail.  We went up a hump and down a steep hill, and I was filled with dread.  I should have spoken up and said:

“No, don't go down there!”

But I didn't.  We went down the hill, and the road disappeared.  Shit.  What was likely the through road was way down the hill.  But what was before us was not fit for a 2WD vehicle.  The view was stunning, north-west up the lake, but that was not consoling when I knew we were likely going to be stuck.

There was a little rain in the morning, making the ground just the right amount of slippery.  We struggled to get turned around and to the base of the hill.  Raj started swearing, stressing about being stuck in the middle of nowhere.  I was consoling, trying to think of a rational solution.  I wasn't as compassionate to his distress because I kept thinking: it's daylight, another 4 hours till dark.  We have snacks, water and an emergency kit.  We have CELL service!  We were only 20-ish km away from town.  It wasn't so bad.

Well, we surveyed the situation, looked up the road and down the road, and plotted out a potential path to salvation.  The entire time I was assuring Raj it was going to be okay.  I was lying to him, I had no clue if it was going to be okay.  I was just trying to keep the scene positive and calm.  We took a little run, failed, failed again, and a third time.  We plotted a second path and SUCCESS! We made it almost to the top!  And that's where we stayed.  The road was soft, so trying to get any farther resulted in a smoke/dust cloud.  We were SO close, inches away from getting up the hill, we were stuck on the hump.

This is where we called for help: road side assistance and a couple of friends.  All we needed was someone with an hour and a tow rope.  The tow truck driver got to us first; hooking up the winch, and giving us a couple of eye rolls about getting sorta stuck.  All-in-all it wasn't terrible, we were home by dark, both of us and the SUV were okay.  We didn't need the emergency stuff, or even the snacks!  And it gave me a story to tell, so that is a win!

This Paleo Banana Muffin recipe (nut free) is adapted from my Mom's Honey Banana Bread recipe. Something she used to regularly pack in our emergency snack kit when we went with Grampa.

Paleo Banana Muffins (Nut free)

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• Author: www.ThePrimalDesire.com
• Total Time: 35 minutes

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Description

Paleo Banana Muffins are not only gluten, wheat and refined sugar-free, but also have no nuts. I think that texture in baking is so important. You want moist, but not mushy, firm but not dry, and the perfect balance of sweet and salty. Have you ever used banana flour? That is the magic in making these muffins well-balanced!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup ghee or coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup banana flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp almond or vanilla extract

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Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
2. Mash bananas, honey, and ghee or coconut oil together.
3. Beat eggs and add to the banana mixture, stir well.
4. I a second bowl combine banana flour, baking soda, and salt (the banana flour is quite fine, so stirring must be gentle so you don't end up with a dust storm).
5. Slowly add the dry mix into the banana mixture, stirring until just combined.
6. Add almond or vanilla extract, and give it an easy stir.
7. Spoon into muffin tin.
8. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

• Cook Time: 35 min
• Category: muffin
• Method: baking