Healthy Oil/Butter-Free Whole Wheat Banana Oats Blueberry Muffins

This is an impromptu post. I was not planning on posting muffins but then I came across a recipe I liked.

I was drawn to this recipe for many reasons. I thought I had all the ingredients, but then I found out I didn't. I wished to bake a super healthy muffin for Father's Day for Jonathan. We want to keep him around for a long, long time. As frustrating as it was to bake oil/butter free muffins in the past, I can't believe my tenacity at keeping at it....with far too many breaks in between, as I surrendered for long periods of times, until I came across this one that looked like it had some promise. A promise mainly because I liked the photo. It was a muffin that didn't conform, a rebel of a muffin, the sort of spirit I like.
I jotted down the recipe and then my computer decided to die. When re-started, all the history disappeared and my efforts to find the site were futile. My handwriting is illegible and so along the way I knowingly and unknowingly altered the recipe.

I used whole wheat instead of whole wheat pastry flour that I might or might not have in my pantry. Pastry flour somehow didn't make it into my scribblings. I didn't have apple sauce. I was lucky that Jonathan was out and about taking in his dry cleaning and I could ask him to get some. I always use Sugar in the Raw when called for brown sugar, cause' I really, really dislike brown sugar, truly! Somehow my handwriting read 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda not 1 and the Himalayan pink salt is my go to now. How fancy of me, but seriously I ran out of regular salt and can't bring myself to go out and buy more sodium. My guys aren't big on salt though I am. I used less cinnamon. I always do. I do not like to overwhelm anything with it, just like with cardamon. I added vanilla to the batter, cause' I had to! It's a must! I only pre-heated oven to 380F. Lastly, most importantly, I found out that 1/4 cup of milk, or buttermilk as in the original recipe, is way too little. I had to use 3/4 cup milk to achieve a muffin-like batter consistency.
I used these cupcake sleeves or whatever you call them, cause' they are pretty, and I had them in the pantry forever, and never used them. Besides, I will never bake cupcakes, another pet peeve of mine. Please don't judge even as I pass judgement on poor little cupcakes. I must admit though that some of the cupcake frostings and decorations are mighty pretty. The batter divides beautifully into a dozen of those cupcake sleeves.

The muffins are faintly sweet, which is exactly the way like it, but if you got more of a sweet tooth, feel free to increase the Sugar in the Raw to a 3/4 of a cup. I also got a feeling the batter could easily take in another 1/4 of apple sauce but that is an experiment for the next time.

The end.

Whole Wheat Banana Oats Blueberry Muffins
adapted from Snacking Squirrel's Blueberry Banana Oat Muffins
makes a dozen

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup Sugar in the Raw
2 large eggs
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt (cause' I ran out of plain ole')
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup apple sauce
3/4 cup milk
3 medium/large ripe bananas, sliced
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 380F.

Add all dry ingredients, flour, rolled oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, into a large bowl and mix.

Whisk the 2 eggs into a separate large bowl. Add the sliced bananas and mash. Add the apple sauce, milk and vanilla extract and mix well. The consistency should be somewhat smooth, lump free.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry and gently fold with a rubber spatula. Do not over mix. Add the blueberries and fold in with the spatula 2-4 times.

Evenly distribute the batter with a tablespoon into the cupcake sleeves. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Ovens vary.

Other Muffin Recipes:
Chocolate Chip/Banana and Meyer Lemon/Blueberry Muffins
Orange Cranberries Rolled Oats Ricotta Muffins
Apple Rolled Oats Streusel Cider Muffins

13 comments:

  1. Healthy and delicious! A great combination.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  2. Super healthy and lovely in their cupcake wrappers! Himalayan pink salt is way better than regular salt - it's been my go-go for a couple years. I don't even buy regular salt anymore - hubs has to really watch his sodium, and I prefer all the fancy salts, like salt Gris or the salt Vert I bought in Paris - much more flavor!

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    1. Cupcake wrapper! :) Oooh I got other salts but not the ones you mentioned. I will look into it when I get low on my pink. TY Priscilla, you convinced me not to buy regular.

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  3. I love blueberry muffins, these look delicious - love your liners!

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    1. Liners! :) TY Laura! They were lovely considering no fat.

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  4. They look fantastic Shulie!
    I love this recipe

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  5. Oh good! I'm not the only food blogger that isn't crazy about cupcakes! I kinda dislike them things. :-D
    But muffins...oh, I can hang with muffins. And this whole pink salt and applesauce thing has me convinced that I need to branch out of my usual muffin recipe and start following yours. Beautiful!!

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    1. Phew, good to know I am in good company, Kate. :) Thx for your comment in reminded to add links to a couple other muffin recipes of mine to this post.

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  6. These look like perfect muffins to keep someone around. I lobe bananas and blueberries combined, too! Can't wait to try!

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  7. I love unexpected posts, they are so fun! Your muffins sound FANTASTIC! I am a big fan of recipes that exclude butter, oils, or too much fat. :-) They would be a hearty, and delicious breakfast! Hugs, Terra

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