Welcome to my first post and first recipe! This is my first original recipe, so I thought it fitting to make it my first post. This one is written down on a piece of loose-leaf notebook paper, snagged from the kids’ school supply cabinet. I came up with this one by combining a variety of ingredients from various recipes.
2 goals on this one: find a use for the regular occurrence of ripe bananas in my house, which is minimizing our food waste, and find a healthy and easy recipe my sons could help make since they enjoy these. These are perfect for breakfast, and make a good snack any time. I substitute applesauce for sugar, and oats for (most of) the flour. I refrigerate these so they last longer, but I certainly don’t think it’s mandatory. Mine disappear pretty fast anyway. I have been making these for well over a year, and my now 16 year old just made them by himself for the first time ever. Proud Mom moment, but more importantly, shows you just how simple this is, and is a great recipe to do with your kids. I do not even use the electric mixer; this one can be mixed by hand. As a working mom, my goal in ANY recipe is as few ingredients as possible. For some reason, it always takes me longer to make a recipe than ANY of them say, so for that reason, I have not included a prep time, but rather the number of ingredients – you decide.
Oven Temp: 375 degrees*
Oven Time: 20-22 minutes*
Number of ingredients: 12 plus optional additions
*Should be noted that I use a convection oven
Add and mix into a large mixing bowl (dry ingredients):
• 1 cup steel cut instant oats (substitute 1 cup of AP flour if preferred)
• ½ cup flour
• 1 TSPN baking soda
• 1 TSPN baking powder
• ½ TSPN salt
Add and mix into a smaller mixing bowl (wet ingredients):
• 3 ripe bananas (mashed)
• ½ cup no sugar added applesauce (or ¾ cup sugar if preferred)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 4 TBLSPN melted butter (or less – I use 1-3 TBLSPN)
• 1 TSPN real vanilla extract
After both are well mixed, pour the small bowl mixture into the large bowl, and mix well. Optional ingredients to add at this point:
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup raisins
• 1 finely chopped apple (I remove the skin and have tried: pink lady, red delicious, Granny Smith)
• ¼ cup nuts of your preference (We skip this with a nut allergy in the house)
Use any or all of these, or add your favorite muffin ingredients or flavors!
Spoon this evenly into a 12 muffin pan. If you like larger muffins, reduce to 10. I use a silicone baking pan, so no need to spray. If using metal, I would spray or grease the pan.
Topping:
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 TBLSPN flour
• 1/8 TSPN ground cinnamon
Mix well with fork, then add 1 TBLSPN melted butter. Stir, then sprinkle this over the top of each muffin.
Bake @ 375 degrees for 20-22 minutes (convection time, longer for regular ovens), and until toothpick comes out clean.