Vegan Banana Chocolate Muffins

Vegan Banana Muffins

Let's talk about snacks. I am a big fan of the mid-afternoon munchie. It just breaks up that cavernous piece of time that stretches on between lunch and the end of the working day.

Usually, I'll go for fruit, nuts, veges and hummus, or perhaps some crackers with toppings, some dark chocolate or a smoothie but I also like to have something cake-like on hand for those days when only a carbohydrate infusion is going to hit the spot.

These are based on a standard vegan muffin recipe, but I've taken out the cup (!) of oil and reduced the sugar and flour, adding some soluble fibre in the form of oatbran.  They are still pretty high in sugar though, so they are still a treat. I think of these as a better-for-you-but-tastes-just-as-good version of a cake shop muffin, which would have generally twice the sugar and calories of this one.

Ingredients:
(Makes 12)

3 ripe bananas
1 cup flour (white rice is my go-to)
1 cup of rolled oats
1 cup oatbran
1 cup milk (almond works well, so does oat milk)
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (rapadura is what I use)
30g dark chocolate

2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C

Prep-step: if your oats are 'jumbo', put them in the food processor and whizz them around a bit, so that they become a bit finer.

Add the bananas and process them until they are smooth

Add all other ingredients except the chocolate and baking powder and process it all to a batter consistency

Add the baking powder near the end of processing. If you add it too soon the muffins won't rise very well

Cut the chocolate into small chunks and hand mix them into the batter

Spoon the batter into a muffin pan, using muffin cups if your pan in metal (or oil the cups well)

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean and they are slightly springy to touch.

I did crunch the numbers for this one, and here they are!