This delicious banana muffin recipe gets a nutritional boost from the all mighty yet tiny chia seed. Replacing eggs in vegan baking can be quite simple. Taking out the cholesterol by taking out the eggs is a piece of cake.

This recipe uses a combination of baking powder, baking soda, vinegar, and ground chia seeds with some water to do the trick.

Makes 18 regular size muffins. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry Flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cup organic granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 Tablespoons chia seed meal (ground chia seeds)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk (aka vegan yogurt)
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (approximately 3 to 4 medium size bananas)
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons organic canola oil

Optional

1 cup roasted pecan or walnut pieces, or 1 cup mini chocolate chips or you could do a combination of chips and nuts – my favorite!

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare 2 regular size muffin trays by greasing the muffin cups with a little oil.
2) In a medium bowl, mix together (with a whisk or a fork) the ground chia seeds and water. Set aside for 10 to 15 minutes.
3) In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ground spices. Whisk to make sure they are fully combined. Set aside.
4) In another bowl, mash the bananas with a potato masher.
5) Add the vegan yogurt, apple cider vinegar, oil, and chia mixture. Whisk until all the ingredients are fully combined.
6) Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix together until fully combined.
7) Add the chocolate chips and/or nuts and mix in.
8) Spoon out the batter into the muffin cups. This recipe makes about 16 to 18 standard size muffins. Add water to the muffin cups that you don’t use and place the trays in the 350 degree oven on the center rack.

As an alternative, you can make a banana loaf cake with a 9 X 4 inch pan. Cooking time for the loaf is 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

P.s. Baking involves a bit of science, as you can see the chemistry with how the baking powder/soda and vinegar react but one time I made this and put in 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of oil by accident. Well guess what, they still tasted great. So I’m not saying you should space out when baking but I am saying sometimes it happens and it doesn’t always turn out bad.

By the way, if you in fact want to reduce the calories/fat, you could use only 1 tablespoon of the oil instead of 2.

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