Vegan Banana Chocolate Walnut Muffins

|Updated Sep 27, 2021

The Little Pine Cookbook

When you're in the mood for a decadent, filling breakfast, make these vegan banana chocolate walnut muffins with a cinnamon streusel topping. These gooey, pull-apart muffins lean decadent but it is made with healthier-for-you ingredients like an egg replacement and dairy substitutes, along with other powerful ingredients like walnuts, bananas, cinnamon, and nutmeg. There's no way to tell these muffins are completely vegan.

This recipe was created by the famous musician and longtime vegan Moby, for the cookbook to his popular LA-based restaurant, The Little Pine. Here's a message from Moby: "I mean, life is hard for lots of people, so if you want cake for breakfast, I hereby offer you a socially acceptable way to live a little. (Plus, even though these muffins are indulgent, they have the superfood punch of chocolate, walnuts, and bananas.)"

Recipe Developer: Moby from The Little Pine Cookbook: Modern Plant-Based Comfort

Time: 40 minutes

Banana Chocolate Walnut Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the muffins:

2½ bananas, mashed
¾ cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons loosely packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons canola oil
4½ tablespoons water
¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4½ teaspoons Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
¹⁄8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¹⁄8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ cup walnuts, chopped
1 ½ cups vegan dark chocolate chips

For the cinnamon streusel:

1¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup Hard Butter, cubed and chilled1.
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.

Instructions:

Make the Muffins:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the bananas, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, water, and vanilla and mix on medium-low speed until combined. Sift the flour, egg replacer, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the wet ingredients and mix on low speed to incorporate.
Using a spatula, gently fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, using about 1/3 cup of the batter per muffin.

Make the Streusel:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
Add the butter and mix on low speed until a dough begins to form.4.Top each muffin with about 3 tablespoons of the streusel.
Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the muffins are golden brown and the tops spring back when touched.
Let the muffins cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store, covered, at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Time: 10 minutes (plus chilling overnight)

This vegan butter is perfect for all your baking needs, but it’s not recommended for use on toast. (In other words, I wouldn’t eat it raw.) You can make it in large batches and freeze it for later use.

For the Hard Butter:

Makes 4 cups

Ingredients

2½ cups refined coconut oil, melted
½ cup unsweetened soy milk
¼ cup sunflower oil3
tablespoons soy lecithin powder

Instructions

In a high-speed blender, combine the coconut oil, soy milk, sunflower oil, and soy lecithin powder and blend on high speed until thoroughly combined. Pour into an airtight container and refrigerate overnight to harden before use.
Store in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or in the freezer for 1 month.

From THE LITTLE PINE COOKBOOK: Modern Plant-Based Comfort by Moby, published by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2021 by Moby Entertainment, Inc.

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