Banana Oat Muffins

These banana oat muffins are soft, lightly sweetened with honey, and perfect for little hands – and big ones, too! Low in fat and big on flavor, they make a great breakfast or lunchbox treat.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the deal. I almost never miss my morning breakfast, even if it is just a protein bar. Dinner I can skip. If I eat a big enough breakfast, I can miss lunch. But without that first morning meal, I cannot focus or start my day off right.

Eating something healthy the first thing in the morning can be difficult. I don’t always have time to make myself an omelette or hard boiled egg, so having something on hand to grab and go helps me during those busy mornings. They also help on those lazy mornings, too!

I often make whole wheat banana bread, but this time I wanted to add more nutritional punch. And that’s how I developed these banana oatmeal muffins.

Ingredients you need

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• Old fashion oatmeal: Use the old fashion whole rolled oats, not the quick cooking oats.
• Whole wheat flour: I use whole wheat flour and not all purpose flour.
• Wheat bran: This is bigger and looks like brown flakes. Wheat bran is full of fiber and has some nut undertones, in terms of flavor.
• Honey: Instead of granulated or brown sugar, I sweetened these muffins with honey.
• Over ripe and mashed bananas: I like to freeze my old bananas until I am ready to use them. This helps sweeten them and gets them extra mushy and soft once thawed.
• Extra virgin olive oil: If you’ve read my blog before, then you learned your lesson on how to bake with olive oil. Your baked goods are only as good as the ingredients you put into it. Choose a mild tasting olive oil for this cake recipe, not a peppery one.
• Eggs: Large eggs are the staples in baking.
• Pantry staples: Baking soda, baking powder, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon and salt.

Step-by-step directions

1. Combine dry ingredients. In a medium sized bowl whisk together oatmeal, flour, wheat bran, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
2. Combine wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, honey and vanilla. Stir in mashed bananas with the oil mixture. Mix in eggs into oil mixture.
3. Finish batter. Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
4. Bake muffins. Divide batter evenly into a muffin pan with paper liners and bake at 350ºF for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.
5. Cool muffins. Let the muffins rest in the pan for 5 minutes then remove from pan and place onto a cooling rack to cool.

Expert tips and recipe FAQs

Each one of these muffins has only 2-grams of fat, 135 calories, 4g protein and 3 grams of fiber. You can add more nutritional punch by mixing in chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans or almonds. You can also mix in raisins or dried cranberries, too.

For the mashed bananas I use in all of my baking, I store old bananas in my freezer. For baking, I simply take out 2 or 3 for 1-cup of banana mush, and let it thaw on the counter.

I have been baking with whole wheat flour for over 15 years. It started as an experiment and has now become second nature to me. If you are new to baking with whole wheat flour, you can start by swapping out half of the regular flour in a recipe with whole grain flour.

Honey is a humectant and keeps your baked goods moist, but it also reduces sourness and bitterness. Did you know you can easily swap out regular granulated sugar in a recipe and bake with honey instead? Just follow this simple rule, thanks to the National Honey Board.

I have swapped out sugar for honey in many other ways. For more honey recipes, you should check out my blueberry honey jam, blackberry and honey cupcakes and honey lemonade.

Banana Oat Muffins

Laura Bashar | Family Spice

These banana oat muffins are soft, lightly sweetened with honey, and perfect for little hands – and big ones, too! Low in fat and big on flavor, they make a great breakfast or lunchbox treat.

5 from 4 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Additional Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course Muffins & Scones

Cuisine American

Servings 12 muffins

Calories 134 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 cup old fashion oatmeal
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup wheat bran
• ⅓ cup honey
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cup over ripe and mashed bananas
• 2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large eggs

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Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350ºF.
• Apply non-stick spray or line with paper lines a 12-cup muffin pan.
• In a medium sized bowl whisk together oatmeal, flour, wheat bran, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
• In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, honey and vanilla.
• Stir in mashed bananas with the oil mixture.
• Mix in eggs into oil mixture.
• Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
• Divide batter evenly into the prepared muffin pan and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.
• Let the muffins rest in the pan for 5 minutes then remove from pan and place onto a cooling rack to cool.

Notes

Serving Suggestions: Great for breakfast or for an afternoon snack. You can also add ½ cup of chopped walnuts or blueberries. If you prefer, this recipe will also yield 1 loaf.

Cooking Tips: Store over-ripe bananas in the freezer until you are ready to bake with them. Their skins will turn black, but the banana flavor is intensified. You can use them for smoothies, too.

TO STORE: Store any leftover muffins in an airtight container on the counter for up to 4 days, assuming the room is cool and not hot. You can also refrigerate muffins up to 7 days.

TO FREEZE: You can also freeze muffins. Transfer to a resealable bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 4 months

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 134kcalCarbohydrates: 28gProtein: 4gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 173mgFiber: 3gSugar: 12g

Keyword banana oatmeal muffins, oatmeal muffin, oatmeal muffins

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Nutrition Disclaimer

Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.

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