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.
Soo happy I have all the ingredients. Will be making these(:
Hi! I am super excited to use several of your chia seed recipes! I’m constantly substituting eggs using soaked chia, there is a lovely little texture added and it makes breads SO super soft and squishy. :) They are just perfect for my toddler to get in some extra goodness, too! Thanks a bunch for your posts and sense of humor, it’s like baking with a friend of mine.
Just made these this morning — they turned out great. I actually added some agave because I like them a little sweeter because I eat them just the way they are. Delicious! I’ll freeze them and start my day with these tasty and healthy muffins. Love your blog, by the way — just discovered it.
Can I use almond flour instead of almond meal?
Yep! They’re interchangeable for this recipe.
These sound so good! I can’t wait to pick up a few of the ingredients and whip these up this weekend!
Fantastic recipe! Bananas and chia are a great baking combo.
We translated your recipe into German and linked back to this page: https://brunnen.eichenhain.com/?p=2195
Wow, these are amazing. I used desiccated coconut instead if coconut flour and threw in some sultanas.
OMG, love these little bite sized morsels.
Thank you!
These look amazing and I want to make them tonight but I don’t have coconut flour – is there another sub you recommend? I’m not gluten-free so the possibilities are open! Would wheat flour work? Oat flour?
you could just use more almond flour in place of the coconut flour. There’s really no exact sub for it as it’s quite different than most typical flours.
Hiya! These look phenom!!! As I am in SCD, could I just eliminate the chia or replace with almond meal? Thx a million!!! ;) judy
You could try without and add a bit more almond meal, I think it would work but I haven’t tried them that way to be sure.
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