Muffins are my son’s breakfast of choice, and are an easy way for me to pack in some quick nutrients, which is why I am starting off my posts on this site with a 3-part muffin series. These muffins are an easy favourite in our home.
I particularly appreciate this recipe during hard times when my son’s interest in food gets thrown off by some illness or other, because (knock on wood) muffins seem to have a staying power that can win out over even the strongest virus.
My first attempt at vegan baking, after learning of my son’s egg allergy when he was a little over 1 year old, was a recipe that will always feel like somewhat of a saving grace for me. Imagine the relief I felt when my first ever egg-free, dairy-free totally vegan cake, a wonderfully soft and simple eggless banana bread, came out of the oven smelling amazing and perfectly cooked and looking like, well, a cake! That recipe gave me the motivation to keep baking and I’ll be forever grateful to Dassana for her wonderful collection of recipes and the kind words she shared with me when I reached out to her to say thanks.
Since, I’ve played with the recipe and found it to be incredibly versatile. It can be made as muffins, a cake, or a loaf, and is a great base for adding optional ingredients like nuts, seeds, and berries.
And best of all, these muffins are super easy to make. Just follow these 5 easy steps –
1. Mash your bananas. If your bananas aren’t quite ripe enough, an easy trick that can save you a lot of effort is to take off the peels and toss them in the microwave for 30s-1 min. They should be much easier to mash once they’ve been warmed.
2. Add your mashed avocado and the rest of your wet ingredients to the bananas. Mix well and set aside.
3. Combine your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Sometimes I like to experiment with different types of flour like buckwheat or spelt flours. I’d recommend sticking with 1 cup of regular whole wheat flour and only substituting 1/2 cup with another flour to ensure you get a good consistency in your batter.
4. Once well mixed add the dry mix to your wet bowl, folding it into your wet ingredients until fully combined (the last thing you want is to bite into a muffin to find pocket of flour, so mix well!).
Depending on what extra ingredients you add to your muffin, you may find the batter is a bit on the thick side. Add some unsweetened applesauce, a tsp at a time, until you get a consistency that is not too wet but can be easily stirred.
5. Spoon the batter into your muffin (or cake) pan, and bake for 20-25 min until your muffins are nicely browned and smell good enough to eat.
Hope you enjoy this one as much as we do. Cheers!
- Wet Ingredients
- 4 ripe bananas, mashed
- ½ cup oil (or very ripe avocado, mashed)
- ½ cup sugar (a little less if your bananas are very ripe)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Unsweetened applesauce, if needed for moisture
- Dry Ingredients
- 1½ cups whole wheat flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- Optional Ingredients (add to taste)
- chocolate chips
- sunflower seeds
- crushed walnuts
- blueberries (if you use frozen, let them fully thaw and rinse first)
- Line a muffin tray with paper liners (or lightly grease) and set aside.
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.
- In a small bowl mix your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder) until well blended and set aside.
- In a large bowl combine your wet ingredients (mashed bananas, sugar, oil, and vanilla). Stir until it takes on a uniform texture.
- Add any chosen optional ingredients to your wet mixture and stir until distributed evenly.
- Add your prepared dry ingredients and fold it into the wet mixture.
- Stir well, looking out for any dry ingredients that fall to the bottom of the bowl.
- When well blended, spoon your batter into the muffin tray filling the cups to just below the top.
- Place in the oven and let cook 20-25 min until the muffins begin to brown nicely. As a quick check that it is ready, the muffin should spring back if you gently push it.
- Remove from the oven and let cool 5-10 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan.
- Make sure the muffins have completely cooled before covering them for storage.
- Best to store these in the fridge and warm before serving.
2. Instead of avocado you can use the same volume of oil. I like to use grapeseed oil for baking because it has a very subtle, clean flavour that doesn't overpower the recipe.
Welcome!
Your recipes are so easy and delicious! I had tried another eggless banana muffin recipe and it was a huge fail… These are a delicious win! I saw what you meant about the apple sauce, I added about 1/4th a cup just to loosen the batter a bit before spooning out into the cupcake tin. I added some Enjoy Life chocolate chips. Such a delicious treat with very little guilt! (I subbed honey for the sugar)
So glad you enjoyed them Beth! I really try to share failproof recipes, updated down to the very last adjustment I made, so am glad to hear you found them easy to make and that they were a success!