Healthy Banana Oat Muffins (no sugar)
Reducing sugar in your diet? These healthy oat muffins are perfect for breakfast with no added sugar. Enjoy them packed with naturally sweet banana and moist dried fruits and nuts for an extra boost to start your day.
Equipment
- 9 or 12 cavity muffin tin non-stick or with paper cases (or parchment paper)
Ingredients
- 2 small bananas very ripe
- 75 ml (3 floz/ ⅓ cup) sunflower oil (or other neutral oil e.g. grape seed)
- 1 large egg organic
- 125 ml (4 floz /½ cup) whole milk or milk of your choice
- 100 g (3.5oz/1¼ cups) medium porridge oats or oatmeal
- 100 g (3.5oz/ ¾ cup) wholemeal flour or mix with plain (all-purpose) flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 75 g (3oz / ⅓ cup) raisins and/or dried cranberries
- 75 g (3oz / ⅓ cup) dried apricots finely chopped (or prunes)
- 25 g (2 tbsp) walnuts or almonds broken (or mix of nuts)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F (180°C fan/Gas 6). Either grease a muffin tin (no need if non-stick) or line with 12 paper cases or parchment.
- In a large bowl, mash the banana and stir in the oil, egg, and milk until combined. Gradually add the rest of the dry ingredients (either from another bowl or direct) oats, flour, baking powder, soda, dried fruits and nuts & cinnamon (if using) until well combined.
- Spoon the mixture into the cases or parchment in the muffin tin. Fill ¾ of the way up. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before taking out of the tin.
Notes
To serve: Fresh and still warm from the oven, although once cool can be frozen in sealed packs to enjoy defrosted at any time in the next month.
Yield: if making a batch of 12 smaller muffins, bake for 15 minutes; for 9 larger muffins, bake for 20 minutes.
No Sugar: As no sugar at all is added (not even honey or maple syrup), this recipe relies heavily on the banana and dried fruits to give it the natural sweetness for breakfast.
Variations:
- Replace banana with 4 tablespoons of apple compote/sauce.
- Sprinkle whole grains or sesame seeds on top with the oats before baking, for added calcium;
- Substitute dried fruits: e.g. dates, prunes, currants, dried cranberries or blueberries in place of the apricots. Note that some packaged dried fruits have added sugar so avoid these if possible.