Kelapo Coconut Oil in Banana Coconut Muffins

It’s been so hot and humid here in the Northeast that I haven’t wanted to turn my oven on. But today when I woke up and discovered it to be a cool crisp 70 degrees outside (with that as the expected high for the day) I decided it was a perfect baking day.

As you know, I’ve been nuts (no pun intended – because we all know coconut is not really a nut) I have had a jar of Kelapo coconut oil sitting in my pantry for a couple of weeks that the folks at Kelapo sent me to review. Yes, I could have used it to cook, but I really wanted to bake with it, because I am fascinated at how coconut oil works when baking. Of course the best way to test it is with a tried and true recipe – in this case I modified my banana muffin recipe to make them banana coconut muffins.

But first, a science lesson: Do you know the melting point of coconut oil? I usually keep coconut oil in my pantry, and I’ve written before about how coconut oil works as a replacement for shortening or butter because it’s a solid at room temperature. But when I took my coconut oil out of the pantry this morning it was liquid. It had been hot, but I didn’t think it was hot enough for coconut oil to melt.

A quick search on google told me that the melting point of coconut oil is 78 degrees. In this case it didn’t matter since I was using it as an oil (and would have melted it, if needed), but a couple minutes in the fridge would bring it back to a solid state.

Now, onto the muffins!

Banana Coconut Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oat Flour
1 cup Namaste Foods Gluten Free Perfect Flour Blend
½ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
3 tsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 4 tbsp water
¼ cup Kelapo coconut oil
½ cup So Delicious coconut milk beverage
1 tsp vanilla
3 bananas, mashed

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes
Tip: add the bananas last to keep them a little bit chunky

I have tried a lot of coconut oils, and Kelapo may just be the best yet. I liked the taste; it doesn’t scream coconut like some coconut products do – instead it has a smooth mild coconut flavor. The oil was light enough not to weigh my muffins down. Baking without wheat and eggs can be tough. The Kelapo coconut oil didn’t add any heaviness to weight the muffins down. My muffins were light and fluffy (and I don’t use that word often when baking allergen-free!)

Frankly, I expected the muffins to taste good, and I expected I’d like working with the coconut oil, what I didn’t expect was that I got some light browning on the top and sides of the muffins – so rare when baking allergen-free.

I’ll be using more Kelapo products for sure. If you want to try it, Kelapo is offering 20% off on orders through June 30th. Use coupon code: Allergy Free (case sensitive). I think I'll stock up on some too!