These paleo banana chia bites are naturally sweet and perfectly moist mini-muffins. They’re the ultimate grain-free snack.
*Post updated 10/11/2017 to include a video on how to make these paleo banana chia bites – one of the most popular paleo recipes on this site since they were published in 2013. I love grabbing one of these on my way out the door to a workout or crumbling over some yogurt for an easy snack. Enjoy!
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Ok, so admittedly, these muffins aren’t going to win any awards for most original recipe.
A banana muffin…wow. Never seen it before.
But, these are probably one of my biggest grain free, gluten free, sugar free baking successes ever.
Something that seriously bothers me about paleo/grain free baked goods is the amount of eggs used in most recipes.
I go through an alarming amount of eggs as is, I don’t need to be sacrificing 5 of them at a time for bread unless someone would like to gift me a chicken (and someone to take care of it in my backyard).
So, I decided to try and beat the system with chia seeds and lots of mashed banana.
And it worked.
Like really worked.
These banana chia muffins are super moist (eeek gross word alert), not too dense like most grain free “breads” and naturally sweet. They’re very similar to these whole wheat sweet potato banana muffins and these avocado muffins in texture and their subtle sweet flavor.
More paleo snack ideas: chia cherry crunch bites | coconut apricot scones
I haven’t done the nutritional stats on them, but I’m betting they’re pretty stellar. Especially as pre-workout fuel.
I popped two with some almond butter before my first Fran since on-ramp back in July yesterday and was pretty happy with the results.
Now I can’t get the idea of trying them with chocolate out of my head.
That’s gotta shave at least 30 seconds off my time.
Paleo Banana Chia Bites
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup almond meal
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 large ripe banana, mashed
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk, or other milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a mini-muffin pan.
- Combine almond meal, coconut flour, chia seeds, cinnamon, salt & baking soda in a large bowl.
- Whisk together remaining ingredients (besides nuts if using) in a small bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine.
- If using the nuts, fold into the batter until evenly distributed.
- Spoon batter into mini-muffin pan and bake for about 15 minutes until tops start to turn golden brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
Great recipe! Nothing beats banana muffins!
I’ve tried to create muffins like this before with little success. I can’t wait to try this version!
YUM! I made banana bread with almond meal the other day – it was surprisingly awesome except I think I used too much baking soda. I’ve been meaning to ask you what the ratio is for grain free baking. I used 1 tsp soda:2 cups almond meal & it was too salty! Also, do I even need to use soda/powder?
Looks great Gina!
These look delicious!
This looks so good and conveniently I have all the ingredients!! Quick clarification though- does the recipe call for 1 or 2 eggs? You have 1 egg written twice in the ingredients list. THANKS!
Oops! Just 1 egg. The recipe is fixed now. Sorry about that!
Is it one egg or two? It’s listed twice.
Just 1, sorry my mistake!
Great idea using mashed nanners over eggs. Until I started reading your posts when you did the paleo challenge, I didn’t realize how many eggs are consumed in this diet! But hey, protein, right? I can see how you’d get sick of them pretty fast though :\ At least these turned out to be a success. They sound and look delicious :)
I love the recipe! I love little muffins, less guilt, unless I eat more! :)
These sound so great!! Can’t wait to try them this weekend!!