Nut Butter Banana Breakfast Muffins (Vegan)

Recipe from Julia Maiten (She also has a fabulous YouTube channel.)
Husband-Tested in Alice’s Kitchen
Makes 11-12 standard size muffins

These tender, fluffy muffins are perfect to prep ahead and keep in the freezer for a quick breakfast or snack. I did use a scale to make these instead of using measuring cups.  

The original recipe said it yielded 8 muffins, but I think she used a jumbo sized muffin tin.  I was able to make 11 muffins in a standard muffin tin.  I did fill the muffin tins a bit over the top, so I’m thinking if you filled the tins to the rim, you could get a dozen lovely muffins.  The original recipe called for peanut butter, but I had a partial jar of almond butter and a partial jar of cashew butter and wanted to use them up.  I’m thinking that if you can’t have nuts, you could use seed butter as well, such as sunflower seed butter or even tahini. I used some spelt flour along with all-purpose flour to make these a bit more healthful. I will definitely make them on repeat!

Ingredients:

3 large bananas, mashed (My bananas were huge, so I used 2½ huge bananas.)
2 Tablespoons flax meal 
2 Tablespoons water
90g nut butter (I used a mixture of cashew and almond butter.)
70g maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g flour, or a mix of oat flour & flour (I used 100 g spelt flour + 100 g all-purpose flour.)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of kosher salt
½ cup dark chocolate chips, plus more for optional topping
Toppings: rolled oats, dark chocolate chips, optional

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/360°F.  Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.  (You can use oil spray if you wish.)
In a small bowl, mix the flax meal and the water and set aside. (This will become thick and will serve as the “egg.”)
Measure the flour(s), the baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Whisk until blended well.
Mash the bananas on a dinner plate and set aside.
In a large bowl, measure out the nut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla.  Add in the mashed bananas and the flax meal “egg.”  Stir well until all the wet ingredients are well mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined.  Gently stir in the chocolate chips.  
Scoop the batter into the muffin lined tin.  Top each muffin with a sprinkle of dry oats (I used quick oats.) and a few dark chocolate chips for garnish, if you wish.
Bake at 180°C/360°F for 25 minutes.  
Allow the muffins to cool just a bit before serving right away. 
They should cool completely before storing or freezing.
For a full meal, serve with yogurt, fresh seasonal fruit and/or berries and seeds.

Nutritional Information: (1 of 12 muffins) 160 calories; 5 g fat; 1 g saturated fat; 0 mg cholesterol; 183 mg sodium; 25 g carbohydrates; 8 g sugars; 3 g fiber; 4 g protein; 4 mg calcium