Banana spelt muffins

I know, bananas again! But this is a recipe with a difference, as it’s my brother Christopher’s. He came to visit the other week and gave me this recipe that he had come up with. It’s a really good one and uses spelt flour and oats rather than wheat flour, and maple syrup and bananas rather than refined sugar as the sweetener. They are not very sweet, which is how I prefer them, and so are a good option as a breakfast muffin. They have gone down particularly well as an after-school snack as well.

Muffins are a great option for when you don’t have a lot of time as they are generally a quick and easy baking option: there is no whisking, creaming or adding one thing at a time. The most complicated thing is usually melting butter and for the sake of speed or ease you could replace the butter with oil. I would use either the same amount in millilitres or take around ten percent off the weighed amount of butter. (So in this recipe I would use either 75ml oil or roughly 70g). I got eight large-ish muffins out of the quantities my brother gave me: with smaller cases you would probably get twelve. Don’t skip the demerara sugar and oat topping if you don’t have to; it adds a lovely crunch and just a touch of sweetness that contrasts perfectly with the cake. And it looks good!

Christopher’s recipe has a teaspoon of nutmeg but I only used a pinch as I find it can be a strong taste. I used four medium bananas from the freezer: just take them out in advance and let them defrost in their skins in a bowl. They have a strange consistency having been frozen but are really easy to mash up when they are defrosted. I still have several more bananas in the freezer so I was glad to put some to good use.

Recipe

Ingredients

150g white spelt flour

50g porridge oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg (if you really like nutmeg, otherwise just a pinch)

60ml maple syrup

1 egg

75g butter, melted

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

Large tablespoon of oats

Large teaspoon of demerara sugar

Method

Set the oven to 180ºC. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.

Put the flour, oats, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl and mix.

Combine the maple syrup, egg, melted butter and mashed bananas.

Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until properly incorporated.

Spoon into the muffin cases.

Mix the oats with the demerara sugar and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins:

Ready to bake

Bake for around 25 minutes or until well risen and springy to the touch.

Straight out of the oven

Yummy. Thanks Christopher!

Categories: Baking, Breakfast, Fruit, healthy baking, Muffins, Recipes, Uncategorized, Using Alternatives

Tags: baking, bananas, cake, cinnamon, fruit, maple syrup, muffins, oats, recipe, spelt flour