Hi there. It’s been months. Many months! We’re right in mid-summer, with me promising myself that this is the year I’ll put in more fruit trees and get vegetable boxes sorted out before next spring. Until then we’re enjoying the bounty of friends’ gardens and fruit trees as we watch apples ripen day by day on ours. The West is in a severe drought at the moment so my garden plans are staying firmly in the “dreaming” stage until, cross fingers, we get a decent rainfall this winter.
We survived zoom school, various lockdowns and reopenings, and have embraced this summer as one of camping trips, a visit to the central coast, and general outside time at playgrounds and pools in a sort of half-way, half-remembered normalcy. I’ve been doing a bit more baking with nut flours to power myself through swim lessons and park time, the extra hit of protein carrying me through when we’re out for hours. These sugar-free almond flour banana muffins have been a big hit.
One of the nice things about bananas is that they are so naturally sweet you really don’t need to add any additional sugar, even in the form of maple syrup or honey. Of course I add a handful of chocolate chips to the batter, because of course I love chocolate, but you could easily leave them out, or swap for a few chopped walnuts for crunch and texture. These are quite hearty but not heavy; you could have one for breakfast with a bowl of yogurt, or as a mid-morning snack to tide you over until lunch. The batter couldn’t be simpler to put together — dump the ingredients in a food processor, blend and bake. I always have over ripe bananas on my counter and this recipe is one of my favorite ways to use them up.
I perpetually mean to write more consistently here, especially since writing time has been very sparse during this past year, with actual assignments being absolutely nonexistent in a large part due to that scarcity of time, and I hope I will actually be able to to do once in-person school begins again. It feels as though we are jerkily re entering life again, putting toes back into a world which is forever changed by the events of the past sixteen months or so. I find it difficult to make long term plans but cooking is something that I am always doing, and I will try to share more of that here again. Hope you are well.
3 large very ripe bananas brown spots
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 cups almond flour
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin with olive oil or use liners.
In a food processor, combine the bananas, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and process until smooth.
Add the almond flour and process just enough to combine. Add chocolate chips and stir with a spatula.
Divide the batter between the muffin tins, place in the oven, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, checking after 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let muffins cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to five days.