Everything-Free Banana Muffins

.... egg, dairy, and gluten-free!

I love recipes that are easy to make substitutions.  Although my fridge and cupboards are always crammed full of every ingredient under the sun, I frequently find myself short on something.   Like today, I wanted to make muffins and use up some of the many, many frozen bananas currently taking up valuable real estate in my freezer.  But no oatmeal.  And I was down to my last two eggs, and planned to try a loaf of gluten-free bread later, which called for, you guessed it, two eggs.  So I got creative on my basic banana muffin recipe, and was richly rewarded with these tender, chocolatey, delicious morsels.   Some suggestions are made for substitutions you can make in this versatile recipe:

1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter, shortening or margarine)

3/4 cup white sugar (or brown sugar, or 1/2 cup honey, or 1/3 cup maple syrup)

1 1/2 cup mashed banana

2 Tbsp chia seed* + 6Tbsp water (or 2 eggs)

2 cups oat flour (or all purpose flour, almond flour, spelt flour)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup cocoa powder (optional)

1 cup chocolate chips (or blueberries, raisins, craisins, nuts)

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper muffin liners.

Combine the chia seed and water in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes.  As it sits, it will form a sort of thick gel.  In a medium bowl, cream the oil and sugar together until fluffy.  Stir in mashed banana and softened chia seeds or eggs.  Sift together dry ingredients, then stir in to wet mixture.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Scoop into prepared muffin tin and bake for about 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven when they look done, allow to cool for a few minutes then turn onto a wire rack to finish cooling. 

*a note on chia seed:  the internet wisdom is that you should use ground white chia seed mixed with water for an egg substitute.  I only had black chia seed, and my food chopper appeared to just stir the seeds around.  I think this would make a difference in, say, a smooth vanilla cupcake, but with these muffins the whole seed didn't seem to upset even my most texture-wary taste tester.  (the cocoa was a last-minute addition to disguise the little black flecks.  Success!  These disappeared after school with requests for more)