Healthy Three-Way Banana Muffins
Healthy Muffins that still taste Good!
I love muffins, and so do my kids, and to give them a healthy but delicious lunchbox treat I made these banana muffins.
The shop version is often to sweet for my liking. And so I set out to make a healthy version, by adding honey and bananas for sweetness, and no sugar. Instead of using a refined oil, like sunflower oil, I used its healthier cousin, coconut oil. And instead of using regular cake flour, I used a mix of wholewheat and bran flour.
Healthy but delicious, that’s what I set out to achieve. And by splitting the batter in three, and adding different fillings to each batch, it is easy to make three different types of healthy banana muffins in one go!
What makes these Banana Muffins healthy?
Instead of regular cake flour, I used a mix of wholewheat and bran flour.
Instead of using refined sugar, I sweetened these muffins in a more natural way - with banana and honey.
Instead of using butter or sunflower oil, I used a healthier unrefined oil: coconut oil.
Healthy three-way Banana Muffin Recipe
Ingredients to make Healthy Banana Muffins
⅔ cup melted coconut oil
1 cup honey
4 eggs
2 cups mashed ripe bananas
½ cup almond milk
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 ½ cups brown bread flour
1 cup wheat bran
½ cup toasted peanuts
3 tbsp peanut butter
100g fresh raspberries
2 crisp apples
How to Prepare the Healthy Muffins
Prepare the fillings:
Halve the raspberries.
Slices and dice the apple into ½ cm squares.
Toast the peanuts in a pan.
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (320 degrees Fahrenheit) and grease 3 large muffin pans (6 muffins per pan)
In a large bowl, beat the oil and honey together with a whisk.
Add the eggs and beat well, then whisk in the mashed bananas and milk.
Add the baking soda, vanilla extract, salt and cinnamon, and whisk to blend.
Use a big spoon to stir in the flour until combined.
Pour the batter into 3 separate bowls and then add the different fillings to each bowl: raspberries, peanuts and apple.
Bake the muffins for 30 to 35 minutes in the oven. You will know the muffins are ready when a sosatie stick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Let the muffins cool in pan for at least 10 minutes before removing from the muffin pan.
Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you’ve made this recipe, I’d love to see it!
After they have cooled down, you can store the muffins in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to a week, or you can freeze them to keep them for longer.
More Sweet Recipes
If you’re looking for something sweet, why not try making a genuine, authentic Dutch Apple Pie next? Or how about trying this Fluffiest Flapjack recipe, which pairs wonderfully with Pecan Nut Brittle and with a Berry Compote. If you’re looking for cake, this Chocolate Cake recipe is always a winner. My most popular recipe -by far- is this Marie Biscuit Fudge recipe, and if you are looking for a no-egg version, I have it too!
About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).
Sign up to the newsletter below to be kept up to date with events, new recipes and reviews, or contact Shawn to chat about recipe creation, restaurant takeovers and public speaking events.