Vegan Banana Nut Muffins

When produce starts to go bad, it’s usually not good news.  Wasted money! Mold! Fruit flies!  But, when bananas go bad, it’s an opportunity to try out a new banana-based recipe, because overly ripe, soft bananas contribute well to many baked goods, especially vegan ones as they help bind it together or something…whatever it is that eggs would normally do.  These muffins are wonderfully soft and moist (it’s okay to use the word moist because I’m talking about baking), and go great with peanut butter or the nutella I made last week. I based the recipe on this one.

VEGAN BANANA NUT MUFFINS

(makes 14 muffins)

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1/2 cup unrefined sugar (or regular white sugar is fine if you don’t have this, but I like Turbinado sugar)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup oats
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 ripe, mashed bananas
• 1/3 cup apple sauce (or oil)*
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

*note: if you choose to use applesauce instead of oil, it will make the muffins a bit sweeter and lower in fat, but they will also stick to the pan/muffin wrapper a little more.

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, walnuts) in a bowl.

3) In a separate bowl, mash up the bananas, then add the rest of the wet ingredients (apple sauce, vanilla, milk).

Smashed bananas:

4) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined (but don’t overmix or your muffins could become gummy).

5) Pour batter into greased or paper-lined muffin tin (about 1.5-2 Tbsp of batter per muffin), and bake for 20 minutes (or until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean).

6) Allow muffins to cool in the tin for about 10-15 minutes, then remove from the muffin tin.

Perfect for breakfast, snacks, or you know, whenever you feel like eating them, it’s your life. While the muffins are baking, you can lick the extra batter out of the bowl.  Lana enjoyed helping with that part!