vegan banana nut muffins

Christmas is over. It's kind of depressing, isn't it? After all the build up, two days pass, and you just sit there, stuffed with peppermint bark and russian tea cakes, staring at each other as if to say "Now what?" Honestly, this year I was kind of a humbug. It's really hard to get into the Christmas spirit in 90 degree, humid weather and no Christmas carolers to serenade or freaky Santa Clauses to scare little children. While my family made a few batches of Christmas cookies, I personally made NONE. How sad is that? Now that Christmas is over, I'll just look forward to next year and make a resolution to actually get in the jolly spirit. 

 

While I'm off of school for the next week and a half, I have one thing on my to do list: BAKE. And clean out my closet which will be quite the feat. I swear, I clean it and the very next day, it's as if hours of blood, sweat, and tears weren't put into organizing the madness. Kind of worthless, but it's nice for the few hours it lasts. Anyways, I have a short list of about five or six things I want to bake, photograph, and have written up and ready for when I need something to post but have no time because of school. Ah school, why you gotta go ruin my life. I really do feel horrible about how my blog stats are kind of shrinking. But I'm determined to fix that and dedicate more time and work to it. Fate follows focus! So during my break, I'll work my buns off, but it will be very worth it. By the time I was finished baking these muffins and getting them set up and photographed, I felt as if I'd just ran a 5 miler. Africa. So. Hot. Too hot for all this baking and food prop shenanigans but oh well. Food blogger lyfeeeeeee. 

In my last post, I mentioned how I've been wanting to experiment with vegan baking. Also, thank you to everyone who commented on my little rant! Your words meant so much to me and as sappy as it sounds, they really did give me the nudge to keep working ahead for what I want to achieve and not give up so easily. I'm feeling really adventurous in my baking, so that list I'm going to bake my way through? All vegan recipes. Yup. First up, I thought I would go for something simple. If I were to be asked what my favorite muffin is, hands down I would say banana nut. Besides double chocolate chunk, but that's kind of a given. I've made batch upon batch of banana nut muffins, and surprisingly, I think I liked this vegan version the best. I was really surprised at how fluffy they got, even with the absence of eggs or yogurt, not to mention, no processed sugar in the batter! When my mom was trying a bite, she told me they were super good and I needed to make them again, as she proceeded to finish the whole thing! Vegan, delicious, and family approved, I kinda sorta think you need to make these. 

vegan banana walnut muffins

2-3 super ripe bananas, mashed

2 tbsp. melted coconut oil

1/4 c. pure maple syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 c. non-dairy milk 

2 c. wholewheat flour

2 tbsp. ground flax

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease or line a muffin tin; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk mashed bananas, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and milk. Using a spatula, add the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Fold in chopped walnuts and scoop into prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool before removing from pan. Recipe yields about 10 medium-sized muffins.