Wholewheat Banana Coconut Muffins (Vegan)

Ok, so I know I endorse weeknight baking a lot. The trouble is sometimes the weeknight extends into the wee hours of the next weekday, when you really want to sleep, but the muffins take what seems like an eternity to bake and then there’s the question of how to wait up till they are cool enough to be covered so that you can avoid the nightmares of leaving food lying around open.

No, this stuff only happens to me?

Luckily, sometime in the middle of the night, the super light sleeper I married, woke up, neatly covered said muffins and I slept on. True Valentine 😀

These muffins are soft, moist, tender. Filled with bananas, strawberries and coconut. Made with wholewheat flour, coconut sugar, and a bit of olive oil.

Dairy-free, eggless, healthy fabulousness.

The muffins were inspired by Two Peas and Their Pod. The wholewheat flour takes them to the denser side of the muffin spectrum but all that mashed banana makes them super moist.

Make sure you use very, very ripe bananas because they help sweeten the muffins. Coconut sugar does too, but on the whole, these are just barely sweet.

The coconut sprinkled on top gets wonderfully toasty in the oven, giving the tops a little crunch. The strawberries were an afterthought, but they’re fresh and tangy and should definitely be given a lot more thought.

Strangely, even with all the various forms of coconut in there, the muffins are not overly coconut-y. Just the perfect tropical treat 😛

 

What you’ll need:

2 cups wholewheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 large, very ripe bananas

1/2 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)

1/4 cup olive oil (or melted and cooled coconut oil)

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsps coconut milk (I use Dabur)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup shredded coconut

 

What to do:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

2. Line or grease 12 muffin moulds and preheat the oven to 175 C.

3. In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas well. Add the sugar and oil and mix well.

4. Add the coconut milk and vanilla and mix till combined.

5. Fold in the flour mixture until just combined, then slowly fold in the coconut.  Do not over-mix. Taste and add more sugar if desired.

6. Divide the batter equally among the muffin moulds, and sprinkle each with more shredded coconut and/or coconut sugar.

7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of each muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter.

Allow to cool before digging in 🙂