How To Make Delicious Banana Muffins Using Bean Flour

So as I embarked on my journey to clean out my pantry, I happened upon the possibility of making bean flour.

What is bean flour, you ask?

Well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like: flour made out of ground up beans. It could be any bean: chickpeas, black beans, pinto beans. Even lentils can be made into flour apparently.

Of course, this being a sort of weird yet nutrient-rich alternative to regular flour, I was all in. I had a cup of pinto beans in a mason jar sitting in my cupboard, and I was all set to give this a try.

Given that these muffins are made out of what they are, they truly have no business being as good as they are.

If any of you out there are muffin puritans, you may not feel the same way. But if you’re like me, a little adventurous with some dried beans to use up, you’ll probably be right there with me when I say these are right on the money.

So here we go. Let’s make some bean flour muffins!

Bean Flour Banana Cinnamon Muffins

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Servings 10 muffins

Equipment

• High-powered blender or food processor

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup dried pinto beans or any other dried bean
• 2-3 tbsp powdered stevia or sweetener of choice
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 ripe bananas, peeled
• 1/4 cup JUST egg or other vegan egg replacer
• 1/2 cup apple sauce I used sweetened
• 3 tbsp vegan sour cream such as Tofutti
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

 

• Start by making the bean flour: preheat your oven to 400F and lay your dried beans in a flat layer on a baking sheet. Bake them for 10-15 minutes (take care not to burn them), then take them out and allow them to cool. Once cooled, transfer the beans to your blender and pulse into a flour. You may wish to sift it in case any unpulverized bean pieces remain. This should make about 1 cup of bean flour.
• Preheat your oven to 355F (yes 355F, or 180C) and line a muffin pan with 10 standard size liners.
• Make the muffin batter: Whisk the bean flour, stevia, baking powder and cinnamon in a medium bowl. In a separate small bowl, mash the peeled bananas, then add in the JUST egg, apple sauce, vegan sour cream and vanilla extract. Pour the wet into the dry and fold with a spatula until combined.
• Scoop an even amount of batter (I estimate about 3-4 tablespoons) in each muffin liner. I ended up with 10 muffins this way.
• Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes, checking after 20. If you can insert a toothpick/cake tester in the middle and it comes out clean, they're ready! Serve warm, and refrigerate any leftovers.
• You can serve these with vegan butter or peanut butter (I happened to have pumpkin flavored peanut butter and tried that on one–an excellent move). You can also cut them down the middle and toast them in a frying pan–also a crowd-pleaser. I made these on Monday and at the time of writing this (Wednesday) they still taste just as good as the day I made them. I feel like, if refrigerated, they would last for about a week.

Notes

This recipe was an experiment in cleaning out my pantry (meaning I haven’t tested it multiple times like I usually would). It was [very] loosely based off of this recipe. But they were delicious and totally worth it!

Keyword baking, banana, bean flour, dairy-free, muffin, vegan, vegetarian

I feel like there is so much potential for this whole bean flour thing. All I can say is, this probably won’t be the last you hear of it on this blog!

Until next time, peace 😉