Coconut Flour Cocoa Banana Muffins (Gluten Free)

December 22, 2024

Coconut Flour Cocoa Banana Muffins (Gluten Free)

Gluten Free Coconut Flour Cocoa Banana Muffins

Prepared by Sarah Shilhavy, Photo by Jeremiah Shilhavy

Coconut flour muffins don’t always have to be dense and heavy. These chocolaty muffins are light, fluffy and moist. They’re something of a cross between a muffin and cupcake, and are sure to become a favorite! The muffins are best served warm and to reheat them simply place back into a preheated oven for a few minutes until they’re warmed through.

Servings: 16 muffins
Preparation time: 13 minutes

1 cup coconut flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, omit if using salted butter
12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
6 large eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper liners or grease with coconut oil.

Sift coconut flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt (if using) into a bowl. Set aside.

Combine butter and sugars in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat eggs in one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mixture will look somewhat “watery”. Scrape bowl down with a large rubber spatula if/as needed.

On low speed, beat about half of the cocoa mixture into the butter mixture. Stop mixer and scrape bowl and paddle down with rubber spatula. Add mashed bananas and sour cream and mix well. Beat in remaining cocoa mixture and scrape bowl and beater down again.

Remove bowl from mixer and give the batter once last stir with the spatula. Batter will be thick.

Fill muffin tins full (or almost full) with batter and bake until risen and firm to the touch, 24-30 minutes. If a toothpick is inserted into the center it should come out almost clean but with a few tiny crumbs attached.

Let muffins cool in pans for 2-3 minutes before moving to a wire rack. Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy Sarah Shilhavy

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Published on October 21, 2009

Tags: Coconut Flour, Coconut Oil, Gluten-free|

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

37 Comments

Sarah S. August 7, 2014 at 11:48 am - Reply

J’Marinde – Coconut sugar is made from the flower, which would turn into a coconut. Once that flower is used, the tree can’t produce coconuts anymore. So the tree can no longer yield other products such as coconut oil, flour, dried coconut, etc. Considering how many years it take a coconut tree to mature into producing age, this is not a sustainable practice. 

Source:
https://www.tropicaltraditions.com/coconut_palm_sugar.htm
“What no one is warning consumers about is that coconut palm trees cannot produce both coconuts and coconut palm sugar! When the sap used to make coconut palm sugar is collected from the coconut palm tree, from the flower bud that will eventually form a coconut, that tree can no longer produce coconuts! Think about that for a minute. No coconuts = no coconut oil, no dried coconut, no coconut flour. Is coconut sugar worth giving up these other valued products that come from the coconut?? Some claim that if a coconut palm tree is producing coconut sugar, which means that it cannot produce coconuts at the same time, that it can still be converted back to producing coconuts at a later time. However, in Marianita’s experience in growing up in a coconut producing community, she has never seen this happen, and we have not seen any studies that have been conducted published anywhere to back up this claim.”

J'Marinde August 4, 2014 at 6:55 pm - Reply

PS:
I would be using Viva Labs Coconut Sugar and it IS sustainably grown.

CHRISTINE August 4, 2014 at 5:10 pm - Reply

I’M ABOUT TO MAKE IT -I LOVE THE INGREDIENTS. I’LL PROBABLY GO LESS ON SUGAR AND USING COCNUT SUGAR INSTEAD. WAS WONDERING CAN I JUST BAKE IN A CAKE PAN INSTEAD OF AS MUFFINS?  I DON’T HAVE A MUFFIN PAN AND WANT TO USE IT AS A BIRTHDAY CAKE ALTERNATIVE??

Sarah S. August 1, 2014 at 11:07 am - Reply

You can, but if the batter gets dry add more sour cream or some milk.

Yolanda July 29, 2014 at 8:05 am - Reply

Could I leave the banana out completely and make plain chocolate?

Sarah S. July 21, 2014 at 9:52 am - Reply

Please see the FAQ on the discussion page in regard to coconut sugar.

J'Marinde July 20, 2014 at 10:13 pm - Reply

Just one more thing;
I have food allergies (dairy, soy, gluten), so I use allergen free Mayo in place of sour cream — works great!

J'Marinde July 20, 2014 at 10:12 pm - Reply

What about coconut sugar in place of either the white or brown sugar?  OR a half & half mixture of white and coconut sugar?

Charlotte April 16, 2014 at 10:26 am - Reply

can we substitute banana with any other fruit or just omit

Sarah S. January 31, 2014 at 11:24 pm - Reply

Rosemary – good to know! The bananas’ moisture is definitely a lifesaver. So glad you’ve been enjoying the recipe!

Rosemary January 31, 2014 at 7:16 pm - Reply

Have been making these for a year now, substituting butter with coconut oil in a solid soft state. This is our favorite chocolate treat. This evening, I made it again & was devastated when I realized that I had forgotten the sour cream totally! To my surprise it came out perfect. Also, I only use 2/3 cup granulated sugar instead of the 3/4 cup. Still used brown sugar as stated in recipe. Good recipe Sarah!

Sarah December 22, 2013 at 2:23 pm - Reply

Awesome muffins. I used no sugar at all and just used the sweetness of the bananas with chocolate chips, they were perfect!

Claudia November 18, 2013 at 8:03 pm - Reply

I’m new to coconut flour cooking. Just made these only added some walnuts and non sweetened coconut. Yummy! I’m sure I’ll make them again.

seth November 8, 2013 at 11:16 pm - Reply

These were (are) delicious but I think the batter was too thick / pasty. Is didn’t pour at all. It was as if I was making drop biscuits… Which frankly isn’t the end of the world. I’ve got this thing in a paper cup that looks like a chocolate cloud. Kinda lumpy, cool, mess of chocolate. 

Thanks for sharing!

Mary Enriquez May 27, 2016 at 8:20 am - Reply

Indeed! Coconut is really dry. If you let the batter sit an extended time it will soak up much of the moisture in the batter. It is still ok. It doesn’t affect the flavor. You will see there is no difference in the end product texture. However, you are correct, thicker batter makes filling paper shells a bit more challenging but not undoable. In my experience when my batter was little too runny and I added say 1/4 cup more coconut flour, my texture was more clumpy for sure but the interesting thing was that the muffins actually rose up higher, rounded and didn’t deflate as they usually do as they cool and as you see evident in the pictures shown on the actual recipe looking like they have a flat top. Wish I knew how to add pics to show everyone the comparisons from both batches.

Marianne October 23, 2013 at 3:15 pm - Reply

I haven’t tried these yet but was wondering if I could use Coconut cream in place of the sour cream.  I’m assuming the sour cream is there for the moisture.

lisa July 6, 2013 at 11:43 pm - Reply

These were so fluffy and delicious! I substituted Greek Yogurt for the Sour Cream.

lisa July 6, 2013 at 11:49 pm - Reply

Also, I omitted the white sugar completely and just added a few chocolate chips on top. Perfectly sweet!

Jennifer June 18, 2012 at 6:20 pm - Reply

This was delicious. i made the following alterations:

– reduced sugar to 1/2 cup total, and used low glycemic coconut palm sugar 

– in place of butter, i used 1/4 cup melted coconut oil and one apple, finely shredded (works out to be about 1/4 cup of apple)

– in place of sour cream, i used 2% Greek yogurt

they turned out beautifully and were gobbled up quickly!

Lisa June 12, 2012 at 1:09 pm - Reply

Made these this morning and my hubby and I both LOVED them!  Thanks!!

Debra November 11, 2011 at 9:00 am - Reply

Couldn’t believe how good these are! Made exactly as is. Thank you for sharing this recipe! Will definitely make this one again!

Ian November 3, 2011 at 12:39 pm - Reply

Made a very low carb version of these with Erythritol and 2 teaspoons of blackstrap molasses to replace the brown sugar and they turned out fantastic. Thanks for the recipe

Mia September 17, 2011 at 4:09 pm - Reply

These are so yummy! I just made them, following the recipe exactly, and they came out moist and delicious. Coconut flour can be tough to work with, but you made the perfect recipe! Highly recommended for cocoa lovers. I think it would taste good with nuts added as well.

Delana August 31, 2011 at 9:49 am - Reply

Thanks for the wonderful recipe! I made some changes to suit my needs (no sugar) with fantastic results and wanted to share with others who may want to try.

Here’s what I changed – 

1 stick of salted butter and 4oz (1/2 cup) unsweetened applesauce (omitted salt as you suggested with salted butter)

omitted sugars, replaced with 1/4 tsp liquid sugar substitute (I use Sweetzfree, 25 drops which is 1 cup sugar sweetness equivalent for this product)

I used a donut pan and baked for 15 minutes. The liquid to dry ratio seemed to work out just fine, I did not adjust any other measurements to compensate for the missing sugar, and technically added some extra wet as the 4oz of applesauce replaced 4 tbs of butter which is only 2oz.
 
The results? I’ve never felt so good about serving my son chocolate donuts for breakfast! They are fabulous!

This was my first attempt at one of your coconut flour recipes, I can’t wait to try more! Hopefully turning it into grain free AND sugar free will work as well with subsequent recipes as it did with this one.

Sarah:) August 29, 2011 at 11:22 am - Reply

Coco: Nope, I use baking soda. But I suppose baking powder works great, but you won’t get as good of a rise.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Coco August 29, 2011 at 8:36 am - Reply

Delicious muffins.

I made them recently, and they are great, but I think you mean to say BAKING POWDER, not BAKING SODA, yes?

I used BAKING POWDER, in case you are wondering. 

Maybe it’s the altitude here (about 1,000 feet above sea level), but I had to bake mine for about an hour. 

The toothpick was clean after 30 minutes, but the center was still on the raw side. 

Also, I would suggest making them using equal parts of coconut oil (melted), instead of the butter. 

Thanks for sharing this recipe. It’s one I’ll try again, and keep in my recipe file.

amanecer May 1, 2011 at 3:19 am - Reply

We really loved this recipe. We were so inmpressed how it turned out. I didn`t have muffin tins, so made this as a bundt cake and let me say this was better that the chocolate cakes I have had before. The combination of bananas and cocoa is delicious, the texture was light and very moist. I don’t know if I will make a flour bundt cake anymore!

Betty March 3, 2011 at 12:45 pm - Reply

made these muffins yesterday and got rave reviews from my husband….I used a hand mixer and followed the recipe as it states…wondering if I could substitute half apple sauce for half of the butter  as 12 T is really a lot of saturated fat

Sarah:) December 2, 2010 at 6:18 pm - Reply

Gloria: It’s VERY hard to replace sour cream. Try coconut milk yogurt.

Gloria December 1, 2010 at 9:44 pm - Reply

What would be a good non-dairy substitute for the sour cream?

Sarah October 22, 2010 at 1:24 pm - Reply

Yes, the whole sugar can be using in exchange for granulated sugar, but it’ll taste different. It should taste good here though since brown sugar enhances chocolate flavor.

susan October 22, 2010 at 12:29 am - Reply

Can the granulated sugar be substituted with rapadura (whole sugar) or any other sweetner?

Sarah November 12, 2009 at 10:45 am - Reply

Well, I’m not sure. Coconut oil substituted for butter would for sure always work in recipes that can take either a liquid fat (like olive oil) or a solid fat (like butter or shortening).  I’d give it a go with half butter and half coconut oil, or half palm shortening and half coconut oil. If that is successful,  then move it up to 100% coconut oil. I’m think it would work, but I can say for sure since I haven’t tried it myself. And yes, the same butter to coconut oil amount would be used. :)

Donna November 12, 2009 at 2:50 am - Reply

Would the recipe be successful if coconut oil was substituted for the butter and if so, would the same amount be used ??

Sarah November 2, 2009 at 12:37 pm - Reply

Yes! You can definitely use a hand mixer. The process will just probably go quicker since whisks beat air into the batter faster.

Nancy Hart November 2, 2009 at 12:31 pm - Reply

Can I get good results if I do this with a hand mixer? Most of what I cook has to be with that or by hand- the old fashioned way.

Miss Rachel October 21, 2009 at 3:37 pm - Reply

These look so good. I will have to try them. I don’t know if we have the bananas though… maybe I’ll have to wait! :) Looks delicious though!

Coconut Flour Cocoa Banana Muffins (Gluten Free)

Coconut Flour Cocoa Banana Muffins (Gluten Free)

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Coconut Flour Cocoa Banana Muffins (Gluten Free)

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