Gluten Free Blueberry Banana Muffins
This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.
These gluten free blueberry banana muffins are a delicious, healthy snack. Fresh blueberries and ripe bananas give this recipe the best flavor!
I bake with bananas all the time. I’m always happy to see ripe bananas in my fruit bowl because there are so many ways to use them. My blender banana bread is a family favorite.
When I see fresh blueberries on sale, I love to make a batch of these dairy-free, gluten-free blueberry banana muffins. They’re so soft and flavorful, nobody misses the gluten, dairy, or refined sugar in these little goodies.
Step by Step Instructions for this Gluten Free Blueberry Banana Muffin Recipe
Step One: Prepare the Dry Ingredients
In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2 cups of flour, baking soda, and salt.
Step Two: Prepare the Wet Ingredients
In a large bowl, mix the mashed banana, eggs, milk, coconut oil, and maple syrup with a wooden spoon.
Step Three: Combine the Ingredients
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir to combine. In a small bowl, coat the blueberries with the additional tablespoon of flour. Then gently fold the blueberries into the muffin batter.
Step Four: Transfer to Muffin Tin and Bake
Transfer the batter to the prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin opening about 2/3 of the way. Scrape the bowl with a spatula if needed. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are set and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Tips and Frequently Asked Questions
I like to use fresh blueberries in muffins because they’re less likely to release extra liquid into the batter. If you want to use frozen berries, I recommend putting them into the batter while still frozen.
Sometimes when you make blueberry muffins, the batter turns a greenish-blue color. To avoid this discoloration, coat the blueberries with a tablespoon of flour. This keeps them from bleeding into the batter.
Coating the berries with flour can help to keep the berries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins. Another trick is to place some plain batter in the bottom of each muffin tin before adding the blueberries to the batter.
Banana muffins require less added sweetener than other types of muffins because the bananas are already so sweet. This recipe only needs a third cup of maple syrup along with the ripe bananas.
These are gluten-free muffins, but you can also make these with white whole wheat flour. I recommend adding a little extra mashed banana if you use wheat flour so the muffins don’t come out dry.
These gluten free blueberry banana muffins have the best texture the day they’re made, and they stay fresh for two to three days at room temperature. I like to freeze any extra muffins that won’t be eaten within that time frame.
Gluten Free Blueberry Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups gluten-free flour (plus an extra tablespoon for dusting the berries)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 medium ripe bananas (mashed)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup oat milk or other milk of your choice
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 3/4 cup blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a standard muffin pan, and line with cupcake liners if desired.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2 cups of flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, mix the mashed banana, eggs, milk, coconut oil, and maple syrup. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir to combine.
- In a small bowl, coat the blueberries with the additional tablespoon of flour. Then gently fold the blueberries into the muffin batter.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin opening about 2/3 of the way. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are set and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. (It’s better to undercook them a little than to overcook them.)
- Cool on a wire rack. Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days, or freeze them for later.
Nutrition
Gluten Free Blueberry Banana Muffin Price Breakdown
This recipe costs a total of $5.59 to make, or $.47 per muffin. Try these easy gluten free blueberry banana muffins when you see fresh blueberries on sale.
Note: This post was originally published in 2012. It was updated in 2022.
Could I use almond or coconut flour?
I haven’t made these with almond or coconut flour, so I can’t say for sure. Please let me know if you try it.
Hi Annemarie,
We used gluten free flour, three bananas(that’s all we had) and three eggs, plus the other ingredients.. The muffins are awesome. We baked them for 16 minutes, turned off the oven and left them in for another two minutes. They are perfect. Moist and fluffy and sweet enough. You could increase the maple syrup if you wanted but, it was good for us. We are going to add diced up dates to our next batch. Thank you
So glad you enjoyed the muffins! I love the idea of adding diced dates.
I used whole wheat flour and frozen blueberries. They came out dry and not sweet. Goodbut not great. I would use more maple syrup/honey or 6 bananas when using whole wheat flour because it’s not as sweet as your gluten free flour blends and it absorbs a lot more liquid – an extra banana and the water from frozen berries was not enough.
Thanks for the feedback, Kasey. I’m sorry to hear that the muffins came out too dry. There’s definitely a variation in different types of whole wheat flour. I use white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour. These are both a little lighter than traditional whole wheat flour. Also, if you leave the muffins in the oven for just a minute or two too long, they’ll come out pretty dry. As far as the sweetness, I tend to make muffins that are just sweet enough. Feel free to play with the syrup in my recipes to suit your tastes.
I love how healthy these muffins are. I made them tonight and they came out tasting good but a little dry and very crumbly. I used half coconut flour and half almond flour. Could that have caused a problem? or do you think there is something else I should change? Thanks for the advice!
Yes, Christine, those flours will definitely make more crumbly muffins. Check out my gluten-free flour mix (linked in the recipe) for a more stable product. If you want to stick with the flours you’re using, I’ve had more success with almond flour than coconut flour myself. You may want to try it with more moisture (extra banana?) and additional eggs. Let me know how it goes if you try again!
I’m going blueberry picking at a local farm this week and I was hoping to find a great recipe for blueberry muffins. I love that you combined them with the sweetness of the banana and kept the recipe simple since fresh blueberries already have so much flavor! I’m new to gluten-free baking but have a package of Bob’s Red Mill GF all-purpose flour. Would that do the trick or are there other flours that it needs to be combined with?
I hope you like them, Jordan! The Bob’s Red Mill flour will work great with this recipe.
If I don’t have coconut oil on hand, what type of oil would you recommend substituting with?
I recommend melted butter as the best substitute for coconut oil. Most other baking oils (vegetable, canola, etc.) are highly refined so I don’t use them.
Would almond flour work, or would that be to dense?
Almond flour should work for this recipe. I recommend cutting the recipe in half and trying a single batch first. Good luck!
Can I use honey instead of maple syrup?
Yes Regina, you can substitute the same amount of honey for the maple syrup.
Love banana muffins, especially a recipe without sugar! Thanks 🙂
-Dana
Thanks, Dana. I love how the bananas work with gluten-free flour. So tasty!