Guilt-free PB Banana Muffins

In case it isn’t already clear, I’m a firm believer that cake can be breakfast. These healthy muffins top the list that makes up this belief. They take the cake, if you will.

Barley flour, honey, bananas and creamy peanut butter. No butter, no oil and just a little sugar. They turned out to be one of the softest, moistest muffins I’ve ever made. The batch of 12 had reduced to 9 by the time I was ready to shoot 🙂

I adapted these from Sally’s Baking Addiction, whose recipes are yet to fail me. I substituted the white whole wheat flour (a lighter version of regular whole wheat) with barley and the chocolate chips with chunks but the rest remains the same.

Straight out of the oven, these muffins will blow your mind. The banana is the dominant flavour but the peanut butter is the miracle ingredient for how soft these are without any source of fat. Drizzle with more melted peanut butter if your heart desires, and I’m sure it will. The chocolate in the muffins is optional, but recommended for that burst of melty gooey-ness 🙂

It’s odd that though I have so many peanut butter recipes on the blog and a fair bit of banana recipes, I don’t have one that mixes both. First time lucky! The barley flour, as always, gives these muffins a great texture. Since we don’t get white whole wheat flour in India, barley is a terrific substitute. You could otherwise try regular all-purpose flour or a mix of that and whole wheat for a healthier option.

Make these. Your skinny jeans and your guilt trips will thank you 🙂

What you’ll need:

2 large, ripe bananas, mashed well

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup plain yoghurt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used Sundrop’s creamy version, their honey-roasted is awesome too!)

2 tsps vanilla essence

1 and 3/4 cup barley flour (or regular flour / equal mix of regular flour and whole wheat)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

A handful of roughly chopped chocolate chunks

What to do:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the bananas, brown sugar, honey and yoghurt. Add in the beaten egg and milk and stir well.

2. Add the peanut butter and vanilla and mix till smooth and thick. I used a hand mixer for about 30 seconds just to ensure the peanut butter incorporated well.

3. Preheat the oven to 200 C and grease a 12-mould muffin pan.

4. Top the wet ingredients with the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Fold them in till incorporated, but do not over mix.

5. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

6. Spoon the batter till the top of each muffin mould. Bake for about 5 minutes at 200 C and then another 15 to 20 minutes at 175 C. The initial high heat ensures tall, domed muffins. The muffins are done when a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.

Eat warm, drizzled with peanut butter!