Honey oat banana muffins

I was going to call these honey oat banana muffins ‘life changing muffins’ because, as you’ll find out, they’re a game changing recipe for us (and you too, I hope) but I needed a title that gave you an idea of how delicious these healthy vegan muffins are. While they happen to be free of gluten, oil, refined sugar, eggs and dairy they are packed full of flavour, have the perfect crumb and can be made nut free too.

In fact, these healthy oat muffins are made almost entirely from whole foods and the whole family will love them (especially served warm with a slathering of butter).

I get it though- there are SO many healthy oat muffin recipes our there, so why bother with these ones? What makes them SO special?

• They are wholegrain and about as healthy as a muffin can get. The ingredients are whole food based (plus baking powder) and are probably already in your pantry
• They are naturally sweetened with only ripe banana and honey (or maple syrup)
• They are free-from most allergens (dairy, eggs, gluten) and can easily be made nut-free too.
• The recipe requires no fancy ingredients that you need to go to a health food store for- no gums, fancy flours or starches.
• Most importantly they TATSE great. The flavour is very wholesome a perfect mix of oats, banana, honey and tahini.
• The texture is what a healthy muffin should be- light, fluffy, moist and the perfect crumb.

Ingredient list to make the best honey oat banana muffins

• Rolled oats. We grind whole rolled oats into a course flour using your blender or food processor, though you can use oat flour instead. If you need gluten free oat muffins ensure you buy certified gluten free oats like these ones.
• Blanched almond meal. If you need a nut free version simply increase the amount of rolled oats by 60g. Adding almond meal helps to balance out the crumb and create a lighter finish, but the straight-oat version is delicious too.
• Salt and baking powder. baking staples. Please ensure you choose gluten free baking powder if necessary.
• Ripe banana. You want the brown spotty ones that have a sweet smell for this recipe, especially as the only other sweetener is 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup. Choosing ripe banana will be a game changer in your muffins, ensuring lots of natural sweetness and a prominent banana flavour.
• Milk of choice. Use whatever milk you like. For a plant based option I like to choose a milk like this one, or I also adore this nut milk base for whipping up your own additive-free nut milk. All milks (plant or cows) will work for this recipe, just ensure you choose boxed (not canned) milk.
• Apple cider vinegar. The chemical reaction between the baking powder and vinegar is very important in these honey and oat muffins, responsible for creating light and fluffy muffins. You can use white vinegar but malt vinegar may be too strongly flavoured.
• Hulled tahini. Tahini adds a nuttiness to the flavour profile and essential fat that creates a tender final crumb. It is important when choosing tahini to find one that is fresh (old tahini can be bitter) and drippy or pourable in consistency. You could use any roasted, runny or pourable nut or seed butter in place of tahini.
• Honey. The combination of honey, oats and banana is something else, though if you don’t eat honey I have tried and tested these with use maple syrup and it works wonderfully. Choose a runny honey, not a raw one, and where possible source out a local honey to you supporting your native bee populations (and produce- I buy mine from our local organic blueberry farm). I am very excited to bring you this honey-sweetened banana muffin recipe as it has been a very popular request.
• Pure vanilla extract. I would call this an optional ingredient, however if you omit it 1 tsp ground cinnamon would be a great addition.

Some top tips for perfecting your light and fluffy honey oat banana muffins

I find this recipe very forgiving and baking small muffins (instead of a loaf) poses much less issues. I have not had a bad batch of these muffins, but sometimes when working with a gluten, oil and sugar free recipe you can have fails. So here are some handy tips to avoid that;

1. Allow your muffins to cool completely before cutting into them. In all honesty I have eaten these muffins straight from the oven and they are perfect, but the best practice with gluten free baking is to all complete cooling before digging in. If you read this post on my banana oat loaf you will find lots of handy tips to avoid a gummy oat based baking recipe.
2. Use a metal muffin tray with liners over silicone muffin trays. Baking with silicone is easy but I get better results when using (my vintage) aluminium muffin trays (which is hardly surprising since aluminium offers far superior heat conduction). I bought cheap, lovely trays of Etsy years ago and never looked back.
3. Ensure your baking powder is in date, and if it has been opened for more than 6 months replace it.
4. Use kitchen scales, except when measuring small amounts (teaspoon-tablespoon). Scales are far more accurate and take away the variables of how we measure dry ingredients. they are a relatively cheap kitchen appliance and so useful.

Looking for more delicious vegan banana baking recipes?

• Peanut butter oat banana bread
• Vegan chocolate chunk banana loaf
• Grain free banana cake muffins
• Grain free vegan breakfast cookies

We hope you enjoy these life changing honey oat banana muffins as much as we do. We would be so grateful if you left a review or any questions below as it helps others readers find this recipe too.

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