Morning Mocha Muffins

If you follow this blog on a regular basis, then you know I don't eat breakfast. It's been almost 2 full years since I began a regimen of intermittent fasting. But that didn't stop me from making this fabulous muffin recipe.

I was inspired by a cookbook I found at the library: The Back-in-the-Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl Day and Griffith Day. If you get excited about old fashioned Southern-style recipes, this book will be right up your alley. Lots of full-page, full-color photographs of the delicious-looking and sounding baked goods.

I have been cutting WAY back on sugar, so when I adapted this recipe, I substituted bananas for the sugar. Because bananas also add quite a bit of moisture, I had to tinker with the rest of the ingredients. I didn't make these muffins grain-free because I was afraid I'd ruin the texture. But I did reduce the amount of wheat flour and subbed in some almond and coconut flour.

Here's something I discovered today: whole wheat flour actually has MORE calories per cup than almond flour. 1/4 cup almond flour has 90 calories. 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour has 110 calories. Surprising, right!?!

Anyway, the muffins contain so many healthy ingredients, you could easily make an entire breakfast out of one. Or two.

Ingredients:

3 medium bananas
12 TB (1and1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 TB sour cream
2 TB whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 TB instant coffee
3-4 TB cocoa powder
1 TB cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried cherries (optional, but yummy)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large mixing bowl, cook bananas in microwave for 5 minutes. Strain the juice from the bananas over a small bowl for about 15 minutes. (While bananas are draining, you can gather the rest of the ingredients and start to mix stuff together.)

Place butter in large bowl and warm in microwave for 10-20 seconds or until beginning to melt. Beat butter with drained bananas and eggs until smooth. Microwave the drained juice from the bananas for 1 minute or until reduced to a syrup. Add the rest of the ingredients, one at a time, to the batter, including the thickened banana juice. Do not overmix or muffins can become tough.

Scoop batter into muffin tin. Bake at 350F for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool. Store muffins in sealed container for 2 days or in fridge for longer. Enjoy with a cup of coffee, hot chocolate, egg nog, or chai.