This muffin recipe is a super simple, one bowl wonder that can take so many variations and substitutions there is sure to be something for everyone. The basis of the recipe is banana muffins but I’ve adapted it to also be berry muffins, chocolate muffins and carrot / zucchini muffins disguised as chocolate! They have no added sweetener and are sweetened using only bananas. I have managed to be able to move our ‘everyday’ baking & lunchbox items away from having any added sweetener, but if your kids are not used to this, then start with adding the optional sweetener, and you may be able to reduce it down over time, if you like.
Ingredients
2 bananas
1/4 c milk (almond, coconut, cows milk, rice milk)
1/4 c oil (light olive oil, coconut oil (melted), avocado oil – some sort of oil! – melted butter would probably work too.)
1 egg or egg replacement
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour (buckwheat, gluten free, wholemeal, white, spelt – whatever you use!)
2 tsp baking powder
Optional – 1/4 c sweetener (sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup, honey – whatever you use)
adaptations / notes
Choc muffins
Swap 1/4 c of the flour for 1/4 c of cocoa, i even swapped 1/2 cup flour for 1/2 cup cocoa once when i ran our of flour. I have also used carob powder, which worked great too. Cocoa is naturally a bit bitter, so if you are on the fence about using a sweetener, now would be the time to think about that!
Zucchini & carrot muffins disguised as chocolate
I used the cocoa sub as above an also swapped one of the bananas for about 1 cup of very finely grated carrot and zucchini. I put a tiny sprinkle of coconut sugar on top of each muffin before baking since i swapped the sweet banana for veggies, just as insurance that they would get eaten!
Berry muffins
Add about 1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries to the mix with the flour.
Banana free
You can make these muffins banana free by replacing the bananas with 1 cup apple purée. You can also use 1 cup pumpkin purée – and be sure to add the sweetener to the pumpkin as well, taste the batter and adjust sweetness accordingly. I love to add cinnamon, orange juice (in place of the milk) and rind to the pumpkin muffins.
Egg free
My favourite egg replacer in these muffins is 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds + 1/4 cup water. Soak the chia seeds in the water for 5 mins, then add with the wet ingredients. You can find more egg replacement options Here.
This recipe makes a kinda odd number of muffins in two of my tins, but fills up my larger silicone 12 mini muffin pan perfect. Id say the silicone ‘mini’ muffin pan is slightly larger than your average ‘mini’ muffin. It makes about 10 regular sized muffins, and about 15 – 20 mini – mini muffins.
what to do
Preheat oven to 180 deg c, fan-bake. Grease or line a 12 hole muffin tin, or two 12 hole mini muffin tins (see notes above on muffin tin sizing!). Mash the banana and mix together with all the wet ingredients. Alternatively, chuck them all in the blender and blend away until smooth – then put into a bowl. Sift the dry ingredients over the wet and carefully fold everything together. Spoon the mixture into muffin tin. See cook times below depending on your muffin tin size.
Cook times:
Regular muffin size: 18-20 minutes
Large mini muffin size: 15 mins
Mini muffins: 10 – 12 mins
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