These vegan banana gingerbread muffins are moist, tender, just sweet enough, and bursting with crunchy pecans and rich dark chocolate chips.
One of my favorite things about having a food blog through the holidays: I have a great excuse to produce and share baked goods for at least a solid month. As much as I love posting savory vegan meal recipes, baked goods are my favorite to create.
I don't usually post as many sweets as I'd like, partly because I don't want to end up eating them all. During the holidays that's not such a problem, as I've got plenty of recipients to pass my creations off on.
I'm a little early this year.
These muffins actually did get eaten at home. Muffins are an exception to my normal baking protocol, as I make them quite a bit, and try to keep them on the lighter side so we don't feel to bad about snacking on them. Whenever I see a banana start to develop a few brown spots, I get the urge to throw it into some vegan muffins. I'm a big fan of gingerbread (I LOVE my vegan gingerbread cookies), and with the holidays around the corner, I thought it was time to try a new spin on gingerbread. Time for some vegan gingerbread muffins!
These were a bit lighter and more cakey than your typical banana muffins. The tops were my favorite part, as they developed a delicately crispy crust.
I expect to make a few more batches of these through the fall and then the holiday season — not just to give out as gifts, but to keep around the house as well, in the hopes that if I have them around snack on I'll be less inclined to consume my supply of Halloween candy or holiday gifting cookies.
Banana Gingerbread Muffins
These vegan banana gingerbread muffins are moist, tender, just sweet enough, and bursting with crunchy pecans and rich dark chocolate chips.
Ingredients
- 2 overripe bananas
- ¼ cup organic brown sugar
- ¼ cup blackstrap molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup unflavored unsweetened soy or almond milk
- ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 cups spelt or whole wheat pastry flour (could sub all-purpose)
- 1 ½ teaspoons powdered ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup pecan pieces
- 12-24 pecan halves (optional)
- ¾ cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350° and line a 12 cup muffin tin with papers.
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In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas well with potato masher or fork. Add the brown sugar, molasses and vanilla. Stir to blend. Add the milk and coconut oil. Stir to blend.
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In a separate small mixing bowl, stir together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt.
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Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Stir just until blended, being careful not to overmix. Fold in the pecan pieces and chocolate chips, if using.
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Divide the batter among muffin cups. Optionally, top each muffin with 1 or 2 pecan halves.
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Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched.
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Transfer the tin to cooling rack and allow the muffins to cool completely before removing from cups.
These look amazing! I totally agree with you! I don't post as many sweets either because I'll eat them all! The holidays are a great excuse :)
These look fantastic! The pecans are so cute!
Haha! I'll admit, cuteness was my primary motivation for putting the pecans on top. :)
Hi, How did you store these?
You can keep them in an airtight zipper bag for 3-4 days at room temperature, or for about a week in the fridge.
Alissa, would I be making a mistake by using regular molasses vs. blackstrap? It's just that I don't have it in baking supplies. But, I can imagine missing out on that flavor component.
Thanks
I'm thinking you could make it work if you used a bit more than the recipe calls for and cut back on the amount of brown sugar. I'd have to guess, but maybe bump up the molasses to 1/3 cup and cut the brown sugar to 2 tablespoons. Blackstrap is more intense but less sweet, so I think those adjustments would compensate for that. :)
This recipe looks so amazing!! And overall, I'm loving your website!! ^-^
Thank you!!
I made these this weekend, but I had to make a couple subs based on what I had (coconut sugar for brown sugar and canola oil for coconut oil) and added in 1/2 tsp of baking powder. I wasn't sure if adding the baking powder in addition to the baking soda was a mistake, but they came out as described. The muffins were more cake-like than the muffins I usually make, and with a crisp top. They were very good with some vegan butter and a hot cup of tea. My husband and my friend both really liked them and they were gobbled up quickly.
I love fresh ginger. So if I wanted to use fresh ginger rather than dried how much do you think I should use?
It's hard to say without having tried it myself. I just did a quick search and found a bunch of articles that said to substitute a tablespoon of fresh for every 1/4 teaspoon of dried, but that seems like a lot of ginger to me! I'd try 2 to 3 tablespoons to start and see how it goes. I'd love to hear how they turn out if you try it.