Today’s recipe is entirely free from refined sugar, but I promise than nobody will miss anything. The banana adds just enough sweetness, and the darker your bananas are, the sweeter they will be. Since I really hate food waste, I sometimes deliberately pick out the darkest bananas from the market, bring them home, slice and store them in the freezer to be used in smoothies, banana bread and in these little muffins.
Sometimes I come home with a full box of bananas because they look so sad on the counter and otherwise they would be just thrown out in the evening. So I sometimes think about myself as a banana savior. Since I love overripe bananas it is a very simple saving job for me, so win-win.
In addition to being sugar-free these little muffins here are also wheat-free and if you choose gluten-free oats, they can be gluten-free.
Preparing these muffins could not be any easier, and the most time-consuming part is swirling in the peanut butter on top of the muffins. For me, these extra swirls are 100% worth the effort, but you can skip this to save an extra 5 minutes of your time.
The muffins are perfect little bites for breakfast and very simple to bring with me to snack on during the day. And they are healthy enough, that I sometimes treat my yoga students with these after the class.
Sugar Free Chocolate Peanut-Butter Muffins
Yields: 24 mini muffins
Cooking time: 40 minutes
1 ¾ oz full-grain oat flour
1 ½ oz cacao powder
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
4 ripe bananas
2 large eggs (always free-range, please!)
3 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla paste
3 ½ oz + extra for swirling peanut butter
1 tsp lemon juice
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. In case your muffin tins are not nonstick, use the spray or line with little muffin papers.
In the first bowl, mix flour, cacao powder, baking powder, and salt.
In the next bowl mash the banana with a fork, add the eggs, coconut oil, vanilla, peanut butter, and lemon juice. Mix everything (a stick blender is a good choice here, but it can be done just with a spoon as well).
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and fold carefully without overmixing.
Divide the mixture between muffin tins. Top each muffin with a little extra peanut butter and swirl it in using a toothpick.
Bake around 15-20 minutes (depending on the oven and the size of your muffin tins) until baked.
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves healthy food and cooking and for her, these two are often the same thing. Cooking meals from scratch, you know exactly what goes in it and even without holding back with sugar or fat we end up using a lot less compared to ready-made frozen stuff from the supermarket.
She does love to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!" Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: http://www.kahvliga.ee/.
Eat healthy with recipes like these and practice yoga to keep your body and mind in optimal shape. Never tried yoga before? Explore with this entry level 5-class Beginner Yoga 101 series!