Banana Bread Muffins

Banana Bread Muffins

Healthier ingredients. With this recipe, you can have your banana bread muffins and eat them too. They’re made with whole wheat flour, unsweetened applesauce in place of most of the oil, and a reasonable amount of sugar. Ripe bananas provide natural sweetness. There’s no fake banana flavoring here!

A nourishing breakfast. Accompanied by fresh fruit and nonfat plain Greek yogurt, banana bread muffins will provide a healthy start to your day. They’re the perfect grab-and-go breakfast for those extra crazy mornings when you don’t have a minute to even think about sitting down with a bowl of granola or oatmeal.

Kids love them! Muffins are great for kids because they are neat(ish) finger food. They’re a take on my whole wheat banana bread in an easy muffin format. Put a muffin in your student’s lunchbox for a welcome wholesome treat.

Reasons To Love Homemade Muffins

• Homemade muffins are healthier than most bakery muffins. You’ll find that bakery muffins have more calories, and contain more saturated fat, sugar, and sodium than homemade muffins. When you make your own, you control what goes in the muffins. And they’re preservative free!
• Homemade muffins are inexpensive to make. The ingredients are pretty basic. You probably have everything you need already in your pantry. And who doesn’t have a few overripe bananas languishing on the counter? You can probably make a whole batch of muffins for the price of one bakery muffin.
• You get to enjoy the wonderful scent of muffins baking in the oven. Why buy fancy-schmancy air fresheners? Bake a batch of muffins and your house will smell wonderful! Bonus: You get to enjoy a warm muffin right out of the oven, perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.

Ingredient Notes

• Bananas: Making banana bread muffins is a good way to use up overripe bananas (for more about that, see the FAQ section below). You’ll need three to four bananas, depending on their size. (If you still have extra bananas, try my banana coconut pancakes!)
• Eggs: A couple of eggs add structure, flavor, and protein to the muffins.
• Applesauce: I like to use a snack-size container of unsweetened applesauce. It’s just the right amount and I usually have it in the house. Why applesauce? It keeps the muffins moist without adding a lot of oil.
• Canola Oil: This mild-tasting oil is perfect for baking. If you prefer another type of oil, feel free to substitute it. You’ll only need a quarter-cup.
• Whole Wheat Flour/All Purpose Flour: I find that using a blend of both flours makes muffins that have the nutritional benefit of whole wheat but are still fluffy and soft. You can use any ratio you like; I like to use a cup of each (1:1).
• Sugar: The recipe calls for ¾ cup. If your bananas are nice and ripe, you can easily cut that amount down to ½ cup or even a ⅓ cup.
• Pure Vanilla Extract: Vanilla enhances the flavor of the bananas. It’s a baker’s best friend!
• Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt: These three ingredients play important roles.You can’t taste them but you sure would miss them if you forgot to add them.

How To Make Banana Bread Muffins

Get started. Always begin by preheating your oven. Never put muffins into a cold oven; they simply won’t turn out. Lightly spray your muffin tins with nonstick spray. Alternatively, you can grease them with shortening or oil, or line them with paper liners.

Mash the bananas. Choose a large bowl (it’s the only bowl you’ll need for my easy one-bowl method!). Peel and mash the bananas using a fork or pastry cutter. You should have 1 ½ cups of mashed banana. It’s best to measure the amount because bananas vary widely in size.

Add eggs, applesauce, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Crack a couple of eggs in the bowl with the mashed bananas. Whisk the eggs until they are well-blended. Add the applesauce, oil, sugar, and vanilla; whisk well to combine. The mixture should be fairly smooth.

Add dry ingredients. Carefully measure out the flour and dump it into the bowl on top of the wet mixture. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gently use your fingertips or a fork to blend the dry ingredients together a bit.

Stir it all together. Fold the dry ingredients into the banana mixture, stirring just until they are combined. It’s okay if a few lumps remain; don’t overmix the muffin batter.

Scoop the batter into the muffin tins. Evenly divide the batter into the muffin cups. You can use any size muffin cups you like, from mini muffins to giant muffins. Keep in mind that small muffins won’t take as long to bake as large muffins.

Bake the muffins. Put the muffins into the oven and bake them until they are lightly golden brown and firm to the touch. If you insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin, it should come out clean without batter stuck to it.

Cool the muffins. Let the muffins cool in the tins until they firm up a bit, five to ten minutes. Carefully remove them from the tins and finish cooling the muffins on a wire rack.

FAQs

Recipe Variations

• Add embellishments. Chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips go really well with banana. Although I haven’t tried it, I’m thinking white chocolate chips, toffee chips, or butterscotch chips would be great, too. Add toasted walnuts or toasted pecans, if you like, or stir in raisins or dried cranberries. If you love streusel, be sure to try my banana streusel muffins!
• Use less sugar. The recipe calls for ¾ cup but I often use less, closer to ⅓ cup or ½ cup, especially if I’m adding chocolate chips. Ripe bananas provide plenty of sweet flavor.
• Make the muffins 100% whole wheat. I often make my muffins with 100% whole wheat flour, without mixing in all-purpose flour. The muffins are a little heartier and a bit heavier. If you aren’t used to whole wheat muffins, gradually use less and less all-purpose flour until you’ve acclimated to whole wheat.
• Make them mini! Bake them in a mini muffin tin. Baking time will be shorter, 10-11 minutes.

Storage Tips

Cool the muffins completely before storing in an airtight container. They’ll keep for a few days on the counter. For longer storage, refrigerate them.

Freezing Instructions: Muffins freeze well. Store them in freezer safe containers or bags. I like to keep an assortment of muffins in the freezer, wrapped individually, and then I can easily grab one to add to lunchboxes or for a quick snack. Muffins thaw quickly so they’ll be ready to eat by recess or lunch time.