These moist, flavor-packed gluten-free banana muffins have beautifully domed tops and tender, floofy middles. They're made entirely from scratch using a magical blend of gluten-free flours: almond, sweet rice, oat (or sorghum), and tapioca.
Best of all, they take only 15 minutes of active time to mix up plus 25 minutes to bake. Add chocolate or keep them simple.
If you have 3 spotty bananas staring at you from the fruit basket, this is the recipe for you. These gluten-free banana muffins are the banana equivalent of these reader-favorite spiced oat flour pumpkin muffins – easy to make, with moist middles and craggy tops. They're full of flavor from alternative flours – no xanthan gum or store-bought all-purpose here!
The batter comes together in 15 minutes and the baked muffins keep like a dream for days. Pop day-old muffins in a toaster oven for 10 minutes for just-baked flavor.
These almond & oat flour banana muffins need no accompaniment, but if you want to make them extra special, smear them with salty-sweet homemade honey butter. Or dollop them with a little homemade creme fraiche (especially dreamy with the chocolate chip version!)
These muffins take well to mix-ins such as chocolate chips. One reader added blueberries and loved them:
5-Star Reader Review
“These are delicious muffins. My daughter is going GF and I had all the ingredients in the house when the email came in today. Only changes… added blueberries in place of chocolate and coconut sugar in place of brown sugar. Did do the 20-minute rest before baking, and they look beautiful, too! This recipe is definitely a keeper; thank you!”
—Karin
How ripe should the bananas be?
People on the internet have strong opinions about this (shocking, I know!) While a thousand Redditors would disagree, I actually prefer the bananas *not* to be fully black. This tastes overly ripe to me in a way I dislike.
My ideal banana for banana muffins is yellow with lots of dark brown freckles, about half yellow and half spotted. They should be slightly soft when you give them a squeeze and they should mash easily with a fork.
The Flours
You know I like my bespoke blends of alternative flours – and I even wrote a cookbook about baking with gluten-free flours! – so we're not going to use all-purpose flour here. Instead, we're using:
- blanched almond flour, for moisture. You can sub a different nut or seed flour, or try tiger nut flour (which is actually a tuber and not a nut at all) for nut-free
- oat flour (or sorghum flour), for lightness. Be sure to source gluten-free oat flour such as Arrowhead Mills or Bob's Red Mill. If you can't do oat at all, sorghum flour works beautifully. In fact, these photos show the version with sorghum flour – I know, sneaky. The sorghum version bakes up a bit more lofty, whereas the oat flour version will be a touch more dense and moist, but very similar.
- sweet rice flour, for chew. Some gluten-free quickbreads can have a mush-in-your-mouth consistency, but sweet rice flour stops that from happening. Koda Farms Mochiko is my favorite because it's ultra-fine and soft. If you don't have sweet rice flour, you can use a gluten-free all-purpose flour such as Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1.
- tapioca starch, for floof. You can use arrowroot if that's what you've got.
Oil, not butter
Although butter is usually better (like just generally, in life), using oil here makes the muffins extra pillowy and moist and lets the flavors sing. Adding 2 tablespoons of milk (plant or dairy – you pick!) mimics the water and milk solid content of butter, giving the muffins better lift.
I like using La Tourangelle's Suncoco oil, but any neutral oil will work here, even olive oil.
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good?
Brown sugar adds rich molasses notes. I prefer organic brown sugar, which is a touch coarser than conventional and extra-flavorful. I used light brown sugar here, but dark will work too. Or use an equal weight of coconut sugar if that's what you've got.
The Method
Muffins are smol quickbreads, and these GF banana muffins are indeed quick and easy to make, no special equipment needed. Whip up a dozen majestic muffins like so:
Aaaaand here's a little video I made showing you how easy and satisfying these are to make (and to eat!)
Bojon appétit, my sweets! If you make this, I’d love to know. Please leave a comment and rating below, and tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet.
Banana Muffins with Oat & Almond Flour (Gluten-Free)
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup (112 g) blanched almond flour
- 1 cup (105 g) gluten-free oat flour (or ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons [105 g] sorghum flour)
- ¾ cup (115 g) sweet rice flour
- 3 tablespoons (23 g) tapioca flour/starch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (14 ounces / 400g out of peel) mashed, ripe banana (from about 3.5 large bananas – yellow with lots of brown spots)
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar (or dark, you do you!)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons milk or plant milk
- ½ cup (110 g) neutral oil (such as sunflower oil)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For chocolate chip muffins (optional but encouraged!)
- 6 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips
Instructions
Batter
- Line 12 standard-sized muffin cups with paper liners.
- Sift or whisk together the almond, oat/sorghum, sweet rice, and tapioca flours with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Add back any bits left behind in the sifter to the bowl.
- Peel the bananas into a large bowl. Mash with a fork until mostly smooth with some small lumps and starting to liquify.
- Whisk in the brown sugar, eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture and stir until the batter is smooth and thick. Stir in the chocolate, if using.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups, filling them to the top and mounding the batter slightly.
- For the best rise and texture, pop the filled muffin tin in the fridge for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven. This allows the flours to absorb some moisture giving the muffins a smoother texture and higher rise.
Bake
- While the batter chills, position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 375ºF (190ºC) (if using a convection fan oven, lower by 25ºF).
- Bake the muffins for 22-27 minutes, rotating once halfway through for even baking. The muffins are done when their tops are golden and a tester inserted near the center comes out with a few most crumbs.
- Let the muffins cool for 10 minutes, then remove them from the pan to a wire rack to cool to warm or room temperature. Enjoy your majestic muffins!
Storage
- These keep beautifully covered at room temperature for up to 2 days or refrigerated for up to a week. Freeze for longer storage. For maximum deliciousness, warm leftover muffins before nomming.
Notes
- I'm indecisive (like, ridiculously so), so sometimes I divide the batter roughly in half (about 500 grams and 600 grams) and add 3 ounces chopped chocolate to the smaller half to make 6 plain and 6 chocolate chip muffins.
- Other tasty add-ins are:
- 1 cup toasted chopped pecans or walnuts
- 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- Ingredient subs:
- for almond flour, sub by weight another nut or seed flour, or tiger nut flour for nut-free
- for sweet rice flour, sub by weight gluten-free all purpose flour such as Bob's 1 to 1
- for tapioca flour, sub by weight arrowroot
- for brown sugar, sub by weight coconut sugar
Diane Russell says
Enjoyed making the Banana Muffins with Oat & Almond Flour last night. OH MY! The texture is so lovely - truly moist, "tender" with the "domed tops." I do agree with Alanna the speckled bananas provide the best flavor. Substituted some of the rice flour with 35 g of banana flour, which I find is tender and adds flavor (plus low on G.I. scale). Added some spelt bran as well to add fiber and the texture was still divine. This is my new go to Banana Muffin recipe! The dark chocolate too!!! #dianesdreamynsavory
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Woohoo! So glad you liked these and that they worked well with banana flour and spelt bran - brilliant! Really appreciate the feedback, Diane! <3
Karin says
These are delicious muffins. My daughter is going GF and I had all the ingredients in the house when the email came in today. Only changes… added blueberries in place of chocolate and coconut sugar in place of brown sugar. Did do the 20-minute rest before baking, and they look beautiful, too! This recipe is definitely a keeper; thank you!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
So sweet of you to make these for your daughter, I bet she really appreciated that! It's great to know that these work well with blueberries and coconut sugar - that combination of flavors and textures sounds sublime! Thanks so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it. <333
kathleen says
Just made a batch of these muffins, and wow, they are so delicious. I let the batter sit in the fridge for 20 mins, and the end result was big puffy muffins. Thanks!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Yaaayyy, I'm so glad you loved them. Appreciate the kind note!
Trish says
Wow, Alanna, another top notch recipe! I needed to use up some ripe bananas so the timing was perfect for your post. I did use sorghum, added cinnamon and nutmeg as you suggested and refrigerated the muffins too before baking. These baked up big and beautiful and tasted even better than they looked. I also did half without chocolate so my judgment wouldn’t be “clouded” by the chocolate ;-) Thank you so much for making my day!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Yay, I'm so glad you loved these Trish! The combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate sounds super flavorful and delicious. Thanks so much for the great feedback!
Jennifer says
These are fantastic! Such great taste and texture. I subbed a flax egg with no problem. Thank you!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Yay, I'm so glad you liked the muffins! That's great to know that flax egg works well in place of regular eggs – brilliant!