Being a grown-up is tough, isn’t it? Between spring cleaning, checkbook balancing and apartment hunting, I am oscillating between feelings of overwhelm about how much I have and do not have. I remind myself that I am a self-sufficient adult, fully capable of dealing with these sentiments and situations, but sometimes I just want to stomp my foot and shout, “I don’t wanna grow up!” Alas, outbursts don’t get me anywhere these days. Action! Action is the answer.
Anyway, I hope you don’t mind if we get a little tropical around here while we wait for local fruit to arrive at the markets. Given the popularity of this banana almond smoothie, my best-ever banana bread and the recent banana oat pancakes, I don’t think you will. If you like bananas and shredded coconut, I’m confident you’ll fall in love with the sweet, bright flavor and contrasting textures in these comforting little treats.
I can’t remember where I found a link to Deb’s Double Coconut Muffins, but I was completely taken by her coconut-topped beauties. I immediately shared a link to the muffins on facebook with a status along the lines of “I’m fighting every urge to stop doing what I’m doing and bake these”. At the urging of Kelsey, Adrienne and Erin, I finally stopped working and baked muffins at an odd hour of the night.
I’m glad those three lovely ladies motivated me to make those muffins that night, because if not, I might not have made the substitution that made me fall for these muffins. In the original recipe, Deb gives a long list of suggested substitutions, including swapping mashed banana for the yogurt (did you catch that?! You can trade fruit purée for yogurt in baking. If you have experience making this swap, let’s trade notes). I was out of my staple Greek yogurt so I reached into my freezer for the bag of ripe, frozen banana chunks to defrost.
This turned out to be a serendipitous substitution because the banana adds the sweetness that unsweetened coconut flakes lack. In my second batch, I traded 1/4 cup honey for the 1/3 cup sugar, and found that the dry coconut soaks up the extra moisture of the honey. Lemon zest brightens up the flavor. It all works marvelously. Yogurt, on the other hand, produces muffins that are not sweet enough to delight. I’m three batches deep in this recipe and I can say with certainty that these muffins are best with banana, sweetened with honey and topped with a heavy sprinkle of coconut and some glittering raw sugar.
- 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat flour)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- zest of 1/2 lemon, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
- 1 cup ripe banana, mashed
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 large egg, preferably at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, divided
- 1 tablespoon turbinado (raw) sugar
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a muffin tin or line the tin with muffin liners (note that this recipe produces about 10 to 11 muffins).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Stir in 1/2 cup shredded coconut.
- In a separate, medium bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, mashed banana, honey, egg and vanilla.*
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
- Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, then sprinkle the muffin tops with the remaining 1/4 cup coconut (about 1 to 2 teaspoons each). Top with a very light sprinkle of raw sugar.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer muffins to a cooling rack and let them cool.
- Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Double Coconut Muffins
- Yields 10 to 11 muffins.
- *If your coconut oil goes back to its solid state when you’re stirring the batter, just warm the mixture for short 30 second bursts in the microwave, stirring between each, just until it is melted again.
- The muffins freeze well!
- I like these muffins served warm for breakfast with a side of Greek yogurt, or with a little dollop of tart lemon curd for a sweet afternoon snack.
P.s. I am shocked silly and completely honored to be one of six finalists in Saveur Magazine’s Best Cooking Blog Award! The nominations came out at noon today. Words are failing me. You can vote here.
34 Comments
Mmmmmm, bananas are just so good in baked treats. Mind you, I’m a fan of yoghurt too. it’s probably a win-win for me either way!
Yum! I’m obsessed with muffins, although generally hard pressed to find one that is health supporting but doesn’t evoke cardboard/sand when eaten. Also, like you, I always find myself baking at odd hours when faced with the big life-y stuff. Growing up is stupid. Making muffins is awesome. You win. :)
Cheers to being a kid at heart in the midst of adult “things”, to fruit puree acting as yogurt, and to muffins that make my mouth drool!
Those look like JUST the ticket for this rainy Thursday… I’m thinking about perhaps toasting the coconut a bit for a little extra nutty flavor. Mmmmmm.
Late night impromptu baking is the best! I crave coconut in that “must have now” way also :)
Mmm such a yummy combination of flavours! Love it!
Those look so delicious, I might be able to get my husband to eat coconut with these guys.
I’m having an I dont want to be an adult day too! These muffins look DIVINE and after my success with your banana bread, this is next! And yay you! on the nomination!!
Thank you, Julia! If you enjoyed the banana bread, you will certainly love these muffins!
These sound amazing!!
I couldn’t think of a better way to start your day, friend. So, so so excited for your nomination–it’s so well deserved. The space you’ve created here, your writing, your photography, your cooking style, and your encouragement within the community is just fantastic. Hats off to you!
I am currently obsessed with coconut, so these muffins looks perfect! :) Might make a batch this sunday and give them to my parents for an Easter treat :) Thanks for sharing!
I am crazy for coconut! Love these muffins! Congrats again on your award! So happy for you!
I love your blog and your ideas.
I have been subbing bananas and other fruit purees for yogurt and/or butter for some time.
I’ve had the best luck with Bananas, Pumpkin, and (to a lesser degree) Apple butter. Getting the right balance of oil, moisture, and dry ingredients can be, as you mentioned, tricky. You said you’d like to trade notes? I’d be delighted too.
Thank you for the wonderful recipes.
Thanks so much for your fantastic comment, Joanne! So far I have only successfully swapped fruit purée for yogurt in this recipe. A couple of months ago I had a hunch that I could swap yogurt for the banana in my favorite banana bread recipe. I made the batter and had cooked the bread halfway when my friend called and urgently needed a ride, so I had to pull it out of the oven! I tried baking it the rest of the way later, but it was sunken in the middle. I will try again and let you know how a properly baked yogurt loaf turns out. :) I also want to experiment with strawberry purée—I am hopeful I will be able to blend fresh strawberries, drain off some of the juice and make strawberry bread.
Thank you for the reply.
Subbing Yogurt for Banana in banana bread? I’ve not tried that. Sounds like you may be on to a basic quick bread recipe to act as a palette for other flavors.
When working with fruits (including bananas and even pumpkin puree) especially if a recipe is moisture sensitive (for example dough for cinnamon rolls) I like to freeze my fruit. When the fruit is thawed, it releases a lot of liquid. I like to drain off the excess liquid from the fruit, save it, and add it back in place of other liquids in the recipe. For example, if a recipe calls for milk or buttermilk, I use the fruit liquid along with buttermilk or milk powder in place of using actual milk. This way, I get the benefit of using the fruit puree in place of some of the fat, while controlling the texture and amping up the flavor with the reserved juice. It still takes some experimentation when converting a recipe to get the texture right in the results. Some times I end up having the adjust the bakingpowder/soda to account for the acidity of the fruit.
I have one cinnamon roll dough recipe that I can make with pumpkin, banana or apple butter. I also have a scone recipe that I can make with yogurt or any fruit puree, and a muffin recipe that works with yogurt or any fruit puree. I’ve tried recipes that call for babyfood fruit purees. In my opinion, frozen fruit adds a lot more flavor to the end product than processed babyfood.
I look forward to seeing your experiments make it onto your blog :)
Joanne, I am totally intrigued by your freezing method and will definitely have to try it soon. I read about a cafe that freezes pineapple chunks for the same reason in The Flavor Bible just the other day. Thank you for elaborating on the method. I think I’ll try it with strawberries first!
Mmm, these look great! I love the golden coconutty top :D
I sweetened mine with coconut nectar. It’s thick and gooey so I warmed it up first it was good
I’m on a coconut kick right now and loving these muffins!
Me too! I can’t get enough coconut these days!
Oh.My.Gawd…I’m going to be dreaming about these muffins now until I make them. I’m going to see if I can sub almond flour for the whole wheat flour for a gluten-free version. Mmm…coconut+banana. And triple congrats on the Saveur nomination!!!!!!! Woot woot. You deserve it. You work so hard and your blog is beautiful.
Thanks a million, Alissa! Let me know if you try subbing almond flour, that sounds like a tasty swap.
These look incredible and I’d love to try something different with bananas (I always default to banana bread). Gorgeous photos!
Hey! first time commenter, long time lurker. I have made both the original muffins and now your adaptation… I like them both. They are quite different. And yours are a tad more complicated–but it was worth it! Yum!
Thanks for commenting, Christy! I’m glad you liked them! I just had one of Deb’s muffins for breakfast (her recipe, but with unsweetened coconut and added strawberries). Yum.
Oh yum! I just have to try this variation! And I love that you eat them with greek yogurt or lemon curd. Both sound awesome.
Made these muffins adapting few of the ingredients and was happy with the result. The addition of the lemon zest is a brilliant idea, as it works well with the flavour of the banana and the coconut.
Yum, yum, yum! These were delicious and perfectly moist! I love that they are sweetened with honey, and this is my first time cooking with coconut oil, so that was great too! I did not do the lemon zest, but will try that out next time. And, in addition to the sugar & coconut on top, I also added a sprinkle of pink Himalayan sea salt from the grinder – YUM! Just a touch of salty to offset to sweet! Off to explore the rest of your blog after this fabulous find! :)
Sea salt sounds like a great idea! Thank you for the great comment, Lianne.
These muffins are absolutely delicious! I used 3/4 cup light spelt flour, 1/2 cup whole spelt flour, extra lemon zest and a flax egg. I also drizzled honey on top in place of the sugar. I will definitely be making these again, as soon as my next batch of bananas over ripens!
Thanks, Holly! Your substitutions sound great.
Hi Kate, I am gathering ingredients to make these tonight. The rhubarb is up in our garden…any chance you have a healthy strawberry rhubarb muffin recipe? I can’t find one anywhere without butter and brown sugar! Is it just too sour to not use sugar?
Amy, I’m sorry for my delayed response. I’ve never made strawberry rhubarb muffins. I just googled honey-sweetened blueberry muffins and found this recipe (haven’t tried it) but I bet you could sub strawberry and rhubarb for the blueberries. If the muffins are tart due to the rhubarb you could always add a drizzle of honey to the finished product!
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