These tender, fragrant banana muffins offer a cakelike experience that is nourishing, too. Made with plenty of sweet, ripe bananas, whole-wheat flour and healthy oil, they’re fragrant with cinnamon and vanilla, and have a hearty pecan crunch. They can be made with either date sugar, which is made of ground, dried dates, a whole-fruit sweetener that imparts a more subtle sweetness, or regular light brown sugar which yields a more traditional, but still gentle, level of sweetness.
Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Ingredients
Servings: 12 (makes 12 muffins)
Directions
Active:
30 mins|
Total: 50 mins
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Step 1
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Brush a 12-cup muffin pan with oil.
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Step 2
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, date sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt until combined. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and oil until combined. Whisk the bananas and vanilla into the egg mixture to combine. Add the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or flexible spatula just until combined. Gently stir in the pecans to distribute.
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Step 3
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan – each well should get filled a little more than three-quarters of the way – then bake for about 18 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack in the pan for 15 minutes, then run a butter knife or small offset spatula around the muffins to loosen them and unmold.
Substitutions
Pecans >> Walnuts, chopped almonds, hazelnuts, or sunflower or pumpkin seeds.
Cow’s milk >> Plant-based milk of your choice.
Variations
In place of date sugar, you can use brown sugar with these adjustments: Increase the flour to 2 cups, reduce the mashed banana to 1 cup, and whisk the brown sugar with the wet ingredients.
