Healthy Banana Bran Muffins – No Butter

It’s snowing and cold out. Baking with the kids is a great way to channel some of their toddler energy. Didn’t have any vegan margarine to make cookies with. Could substitute the fat with something else, but it just wouldn’t give me the crispy edge and chewy middle that a good cookie should have.

After searching my go to recipe site, allrecipes.com, I found this gem. Made some changes to account for my darling’s allergies and wanted to punch up the nutritional value. Perfect for snack time at school.

Ingredients

1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)
1/4 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp coconut vanilla yogurt (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bran flakes
1/2 cup oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup craisens (soaked in bowl of boiled water while preparing. drain before adding)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a muffin pan or line with paper muffin liners.
In a large mixing bowl, mix applesauce and brown sugar together. Add bananas, milk, yogurt, vanilla and eggs; mix well.
In separate bowl mix flour, bran, oats, baking powder, soda and salt; Add to wet ingredients and blend until moistened. Add raisins and craisens and mix slightly. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in the cups for 5 minutes, then remove muffins and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes:

Grease the muffin pan instead of use muffins liners otherwise it will stick to the paper
I made mini-muffins. Only took 12-15 minutes. Checked it at 10 minutes, but it didn’t bounce back. Ready at 15.
I just added the yogurt to make it a little more moist, i had it on hand, and wanted to bump up the nutrition
You can use all raisins, add walnuts, etc. going to sprinkle a couple mini-chocolate chips on the top to satisfy the kiddies sweet tooth without them wanting a whole package of sugary treats
You basically need 2 cups of flour. So, if you don’t have whole wheat flour, bran, oats, etc. then just make a mix of stuff you have. i.e. all-purpose flour, ground flax seed, etc.
Use honey instead of brown sugar