Back to School Recipe: Quick, Healthy & Delicious Banana Muffins

September 8, 2011 12:00 am

 

Ingredients
2¼ cups flour
¾ cups sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
¾ cups milk
¼ cup oil
1 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp water
5 bananas, mashed or chopped (4 with optional chocolate chips)
1 small handful chocolate chips (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients, including the fruit. Gently fold the wet mixture into the dry. Add chips, if desired. Pour batter into a greased muffin tin (or use cupcake liners to prevent sticking). Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit for several minutes and transfer to a rack to cool.
Says Katie: “Include your kids in baking this recipe. If these muffins are meant as a lunchbox snack, they will feel proud to have had a hand in it. Even a small child can help portion the dough into the pan.”
Variations
  • Gluten-free: Replace regular flour with a mix of quinoa flour and white rice flour.
  • Dairy-free: Organic soy milk is good substitute for traditional cow’s milk. Almond milk tends to be too thin, as does canned coconut milk. Unsweetened coconut milk from the grocery store’s refrigerated section, however, bakes well. You can find dairy-free chocolate chips at any grocery store (just be sure to read the ingredients carefully). Says Katie: “Whole Foods makes it easy; it’s the green package that says ‘vegan chocolate chips.’”
  • Naturally sweet: Try using organic evaporated cane juice crystals as a natural sugar. Do not use honey, molasses, agave or another liquid sweetener, as the recipe will not work.
  • Salt savvy: Use good sea salt instead of table salt; the latter can include trace minerals.
  • Oil and vinegar: Non-GMO canola oil from Spectrum is designed to cook well in high heat, and makes an excellent replacement for regular cooking oil. Flax or olive oils, however, make poor substitutes, as they will break down in the oven and give your muffins a funny flavour. As for vinegar, Katie says stick to the plain, white variety. “I had a friend who used balsamic vinegar once. It was gross.”

Categorised in: