In the Night Kitchen Banana Muffins (& Bread!)

Baking muffins while the kids sleep. Shhh!

I admit, I can be pretty lazy. I can barely muster up the energy to make oatmeal for my kids in the morning, let alone make them a home-cooked breakfast every day. But, if I am going to make something from scratch for their breakfasts, I want it to at least be healthy-ish. So, when I saw three bananas on my counter just hollering to be baked into something, I decided to teak a sweet bread recipe of mine by lowering the sugar content and adding more fiber/whole grains. The result was wholesome, but still yumdidliumcious.

I baked the kids some muffins and used the rest of the batter to make my husband's office mates a loaf of banana bread (with dabs of peanut butter and chocolate chips plopped in the middle as a baking experiment). The peanut butter was a tad too salty, but I'll try tweaking it again and see if I can get it right next time.

A little sprinkle of Enjoy Life mini-chocolate chips before baking will certainly help say, "Good morning, Sunshine!"

In the Night Kitchen Banana Muffins Recipe (vegan)
makes about 24 muffins or 1 loaf of bread

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup AP unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour (Grind oatmeal into a fine powder)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup vegan sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vegan yogurt (the thicker the better)
• 1/8 cup melted Earth Balance
• 1/8 cup oil (I used sunflower oil)
• 3 very ripe, very mashed bananas
• chocolate chips for garnish or to be mixed in to the batter (about 1 cup)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients and then add bananas.
4. Combine wet to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. To make muffins, add about 1/4 cup of batter to greased muffin tins (when using muffins liners, I still like to give the liners a very quick spray with non-sitck cooking spray). Bake about 20-22 minutes.
6. To make bread, grease bread pan and add batter. Bake about 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (Sometimes with quick breads, the outside may seem to be a little burnt, but the inside is fine, so don't worry if the outside of the bread seems done before the center.)