Banana Nut Muffins

I don’t know about you, but the first thing I think of when I have slightly overripe bananas is banana nut muffins. Maybe you think more along the lines of bread, but since I bend toward all things cupcake related, I go muffin.

Bananas have been going so quickly around here, though, that this is the first time since going vegan that I’ve found myself with an abundance of brown bananas on hand, and in need of  good new recipe. At first I thought I’d just use my old stand-by recipe, replacing the half-pound of butter with Earth Balance margarine, but as the biggest part of the drastic change in my diet is for health reasons, it seemed counterproductive to just stick with what I know.

Luckily it didn’t take me long to find the perfect recipe. I knew I wanted whole wheat flour and flax seed meal, and Google must have read my mind because it led me almost directly to this recipe, by Sarah at Happy Foody. (That link goes to her new blog, but the posted recipe is from here, her old blog.)

These muffins were even better than my former favorite! The only thing missing was the strong buttery flavor. However, also missing were the buttery greasy fingers, which is a pretty ok exchange in my book. They are rich and moist, perfectly banana-ey, and the combination of whole wheat flour and flax seed meal gives them great nutritional value.

One more note, and then I’ll post the recipe. The changes I made were to use whole wheat pastry flour in place of the whole wheat flour, and grapeseed oil rather than the olive oil, simply because I was out of wheat flour and olive oil. I’m interested in trying the recipe with the olive oil, but I think the next time I make them I’ll eliminate the oil all together and use applesauce, to make them even more healthful.

Delightful Banana Nut Muffins
(adapted from Sarah at Happy Foody)

1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup dry sweetener (I used evaporated cane sugar)
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
½ t salt
¾ cup ground flaxseed
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup grape seed or olive oil
1 t vanilla extract
2/3 cup soy, rice, or almond milk (I used soy)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sweetener, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flax, and walnuts. In a small bowl, combine the bananas, oil, vanilla and soy milk. Pour the liquid ingredients with the dry and mix together gently until “just mixed”. Spoon into a lightly oiled muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

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