When you buy two bunches of bananas each week at the grocery store, there are usually a few leftover. Even after you use this handy trick: Buy one bunch of bananas as green as possible and stick them in a Green Bag, and clip it closed.
These muffins are SO easy to make - dump and process! It takes longer for the oven to heat up than to get these mixed up. I call these 5 ingredients, because to me, everyone should have baking soda, salt and cinnamon in their panty 😉They are also gluten-free.
I use the food processor bowl from my Ninja Blender system, which has a very high powered motor. I put everything in the bowl, process for 90 seconds, scrape down the sides, add the chocolate chips, and process for a minute more. (The chocolate chips stay mostly intact but end up larger than had I used mini chips.) After the second process you should not be able to see pieces of the dates. You can also use a blender, but you may need to blend the mixture a little longer. I get 12 nicely domed muffins from each batch.
There is no added sugar, other than what is in the chocolate chips, so make sure your bananas are VERY ripe. As my mom would say, loaded with sugar spots. Don't worry, the dates provide the sugar!
Older's Thoughts:
This recipe is fast and easy to make. They are tasty and I like to have them with butter. This is a kid friendly recipe; just dump in the ingredients, blend, then spoon into the muffin tins and bake. I like this recipe a lot! You could also put in berries and other kinds of chocolate chips.
5 Ingredient Banana Oat Muffins
2 cups rolled oats
3 medium bananas, very ripe
2 eggs
¾ cup pitted whole dates
1 teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350º
Mix all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
Spoon batter into a greased muffin tin.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let rest in pan 5 minutes before removing from pan to a cooling rack to cool completely. Serve with a smear of butter or peanut butter.
I admit that I have a major sweet tooth. If it weren't for the Hubs checking and double checking most recipes I make, I would not even bat an eye about the sugar content in a recipe. I joke he is the healthiest person I know. Actually, it is not a joke, he is. I was thumbing though one of my favorite cookbooks, Run Fast Eat Slow, and spotted this recipe. The Hubs jokes that what I call quick breads are really cakes. It only has a 1/4 cup of sugar, so it quickly got put on the menu.
The Younger said he would like to make this recipe, so off we went.
We only had two ripe bananas on the counter, so we went to the freezer. I assume everyone has a bag of these, right?
I have found that peeling, and halving ripe bananas makes it easier for smoothies, whatnot. Today, it was banana bread.
Younger put this bread together quick as a wink. I enjoyed that he did EVERYTHING by himself. Because this recipe has only 1/4 cup sugar, your bananas need to be very, very ripe.
This bread is really quite nice. I know we will definitely be making it again because it is healthy and tastes good. You can tell it is made with whole grains and low sugar, in a good way. As I am writing this post, the loaf is pretty much devoured. Hubs and I liked it best when it had a light smear of butter. We did not use the optional walnuts as we have a tree nut allergy in the house, but they would be a delicious addition. Next time I will make sure to add the optional date pieces or golden raisins.
Younger's Thoughts:
It is very moist and the spelt flour adds a distinct taste that makes it better then it would be with regular wheat flour. The coconut sugar boosts it even more, even though there is only 1/4 cup of it! Overall, it is very delicious but I would recommend doubling the banana because the banana is overpowered by the flour.
Spelt Banana Bread - Run Fast Eat Slow
1 1/2 cups spelt flour - I had to buy online
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup coconut sugar or other granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (3 or 4 VERY ripe, brown speckled bananas)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup date pieces or golden raisins (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 º. Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugar on low until combined. Add the eggs, beat one minute. Add the bananas and vanilla and mix until combined,
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in walnuts and dried fruit if using.
Pour into loaf pan and bake, 50-60 minutes, until top is golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove loaf from pan and cool completely prior to slicing.
