Choc Chip Banana Oat Muffins: Light & fluffy muffins made with bananas, oats, greek yoghurt & honey (plus chocolate for good measure!)
I’ve always thought that ‘healthy’ versions of cakes are a waste of time. Far better to have the real thing (which actually tastes good) as part of a balanced diet.
So, it came as a surprise to me when I found myself baking banana muffins with oats and greek yoghurt rather than flour and butter. The first batch turned out too dense & claggy and I almost gave up, satisfied that I’d proved my theory.
I’m nothing if not persistent though, and with a little less banana & a little more oats I was onto a winner. I reckon this is as far as my experimenting goes though – you won’t find me attempting a raw brownie any time soon!
As you’ve probably gathered, I have a serious sweet tooth & love anything sugary. What I don’t love though, is feeling sluggish & hungry again an hour after eating something.
Fine on a Sunday when I’m chilling on the sofa with Netflix; not so good midweek when I want to get out for a run or, y’know, actually concentrate at work.
These choc chip banana oat muffins are my remedy. Full of protein to keep you going for a while and with enough sweetness to make them taste good without inviting a sugar coma!
Obviously, they don’t taste quite as indulgent as a proper cake (and I’ll certainly be sticking to a more usual recipe for less every day occasions!), but they’re pretty damn good and certainly don’t feel like health food.
Some tips & notes for baking Banana Oat Muffins
- You’ll need a food processor/blender. Sorry! If you don’t have one, you could try mashing the banana and using flour instead of oats, but I can’t guarantee they’d turn out well. Probably better to try a different recipe (or get yourself a processor!)
- Use full fat greek yoghurt. They actually don’t taste too different with the 0% stuff, but less fat means they’re more likely to stick to muffin cases & become a bit of a mess. I use these Greaseproof Muffin Cases from Lakeland & find them pretty good.
- Make sure your bananas are ripe, and ideally weigh them (after peeling). I know, it’s a faff, but too much or too little can make quite a difference to the texture.
- These freeze really well (which is handy given I made a mess of scaling whilst recipe testing & ended up with 24 choc chip banana oat muffins 🙈). You can let them defrost at room temperature or, even better, pop them in the microwave & eat them warm.
- The recipe calls for honey, purely because I like the flavour, but I’ve also made it with golden syrup (same quantity) and I’m sure maple syrup would be great too.
Ingredients
- 300g oats
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 225g very ripe banana (about 3 small/2 large)
- 3 medium eggs
- 425g greek yoghurt
- 125g honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 100g chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°c. In a food processor, add the oats, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt, and process until you have a fine powder, similar to flour.
- Add all of the remaining ingredients (apart from the chocolate chips) and process until smooth.
- Fold in the chocolate chips, then divide the batter between 12 muffin cases. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden on top. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
I love when kitchen experiments come together and result in a winning bake!
Beautiful!