These gluten free, egg free banana buckwheat muffins with cream cheese frosting are perfect as an afternoon snack or a party treat. They are the perfect little dessert for families with gluten, nut and egg allergies.
A few months ago, my second daughter was diagnosed with Coeliac disease. It was no shock considering both of my daughters already share a range of allergies between them. But having one other thing, like gluten, to avoid, means I’ve had to get very creative with my baking and cooking.
Naturally I bake many of my goods without gluten, but when the option to bake with it is gone, it somehow seems harder to come up with recipes (does that even make sense?!).
I have been experimenting with different flours and for a long time I avoided buckwheat flour because I had once had a bad experience with it. However, I reintroduced it into the kitchen again with this recipe and it tastes wonderful.
If you are like me and hesitate to use buckwheat flour, then please do take the risk and give it a try with this recipe. It must be the combination of banana and buckwheat that make it so moist.
For me, the cream cheese frosting is like the cherry on top. However, the muffins taste great without it also. Currently, I have some of the muffins slathered in cream cheese frosting and some bare, so we’ve got options.
Now, onto the recipe.
What I will cover
- Tools you will need
- Ingredients you will need
- Method for banana buckwheat muffins with cream cheese frosting
- Notes about recipe
Tools you will need
- Mixing bowl
- Measuring cup
- Electric mixer
- Muffin trays
- Nozzle and piping bag (find here)
Ingredients you will need
- Ripe bananas
- Buckwheat flour
- Baking powder
- Coconut sugar
- Greek yoghurt
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Dark choc chips
- Butter
- Cream cheese
- Icing sugar
- Vanilla extract
Method for Banana Buckwheat Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Preheat oven at 180 degrees celsius
- Mash bananas with a fork in a bowl or on a plate
3. Beat in olive oil, mashed banana and yoghurt with electric mixer
4. Add coconut sugar and beat again
5. Add baking powder and buckwheat flour and beat again until combined
6. Stir in chocolate chips
7. Cover bowl with cling wrap and leave in fridge for 30 minutes-2 hours (the batter is easier to scoop out when the it is cold and the muffins rise better).
8. Scoop out batter into muffin tray and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of your muffin tray – mine is small).
9. For the icing, combine the butter and cream cheese and beat with electric mixer until creamy
10. Add in vanilla extract and beat with electric mixer
11. Slowly add in the icing sugar and beat with electric mixer until well combined
12. With a nozzle and piping bag, decorate your muffins with as much icing as you desire
13. Make sure to store on a plate or in a container in the refrigerator.
Notes about recipe
- Buckwheat flour swaps: you can swap out buckwheat flour for any other gluten free flour like coconut flour, tapioca flour, almond flour or arrowroot flour. I would imagine you may need to add a little more baking powder (1/4 to 1/2 tablespoon more when using almond flour or coconut flour).
- Banana quantity: I used two bananas in this recipe, but have seen other recipes use three. It is up to you how much you would like the banana flavour to come through. Our bananas were extremely ripe, so using more than two would have been an overkill of banana flavour.
- Coconut sugar swap: I love using coconut sugar for various reasons, but if you only have brown sugar or even maple syrup, those would do just fine. I would add half a cup of maple syrup to the recipe.
- Greek yoghurt swap: I have learnt that using Greek yoghurt has been the easiest way to swap out the eggs and it makes the recipe extra creamy. However, you could also use flaxseed or chia eggs (1 tbsp seeds to 3 tbsp of water ratio). You could also use chicken eggs if you can tolerate them or prefer.
- Cream cheese frosting: if you would like just plain butter frosting, then leave out the cream cheese and add about 100g more of butter. The muffins also taste delicious without the frosting at all, but I love how the cream cheese frosting adds another layer of creaminess and sweetness to the recipe.
- Refrigerate: as I mentioned above, refrigerating the batter for a little while makes it easier to scoop out into the muffin trays and I also find that they rise a little better. However, you can skip this step if you are on a time limit.
- Choc chips: for the choc chips, I love using dark chocolate and cutting it up into small pieces. The dark chocolate chunks make it more chocolate-y and add more texture to the muffins.
More allergy-friendly treats
Fruity Gelatin Gummies for kids
Egg free chocolate birthday cake
Healthy nut free apple crumble
Banana Buckwheat Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- 1 Mixing Bowl
- 1 Electric Beaters
- 1 Large spoon
- 1 Muffin tray
- 1 Nozzle (for icing)
- 1 Piping bag (for icing)
Ingredients
For muffin batter
- 2-3 Ripe bananas
- 1 cup Buckwheat flour
- 1.5 tbsp Baking powder
- 1/2 cup Coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
- 1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
- 100 g Dark chocolate (chopped into pieces)
Icing
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 1/2 cup Cream cheese
- 1/2 cup Icing sugar
- 1 tbsp Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 180 degrees celsius
- Mash banana with fork on a plate
- Beat in olive oil, mashed banana and yoghurt with electric mixer
- Add coconut sugar and beat again
- Beat buckwheat flour and baking powder into mix
- Stir in chocolate chunks
- Cover bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 2 hours
- Scoop out batter into muffin tray and bake for 15-20 minutes
Icing
- Combine butter and cream cheese together with electric beater
- Add vanilla extract and mix with electric beater
- Slowly add in the icing sugar while beating the icing until well combined
- With a nozzle and piping bag, when muffins have cooled, decorate your muffins with the icing as you so desire
- Make sure to refrigerate in an airtight container for storage.
Notes
- Buckwheat flour swaps: you can swap out buckwheat flour for any other gluten free flour like coconut flour, tapioca flour, almond flour or arrowroot flour. I would imagine you may need to add a little more baking powder (1/4 to 1/2 tablespoon more when using almond flour or coconut flour).
- Banana quantity: I used two bananas in this recipe, but have seen other recipes use three. It is up to you how much you would like the banana flavour to come through. Our bananas were extremely ripe, so using more than two would have been an overkill of banana flavour.
- Coconut sugar swap: I love using coconut sugar for various reasons, but if you only have brown sugar or even maple syrup, those would do just fine. I would add half a cup of maple syrup to the recipe.
- Greek yoghurt swap: I have learnt that using Greek yoghurt has been the easiest way to swap out the eggs and it makes the recipe extra creamy. However, you could also use flaxseed or chia eggs (1 tbsp seeds to 3 tbsp of water ratio). You could also use chicken eggs if you can tolerate them or prefer.
- Cream cheese frosting: if you would like just plain butter frosting, then leave out the cream cheese and add about 100g more of butter. The muffins also taste delicious without the frosting at all, but I love how the cream cheese frosting adds another layer of creaminess and sweetness to the recipe.
- Refrigerate: as I mentioned above, refrigerating the batter for a little while makes it easier to scoop out into the muffin trays and I also find that they rise a little better. However, you can skip this step if you are on a time limit.
- Choc chips: for the choc chips, I love using dark chocolate and cutting it up into small pieces. The dark chocolate chunks make it more chocolate-y and add more texture to the muffins.
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