These peanut butter banana muffins are absolutely delicious, perfectly moist, and loaded with heart healthy oat flour and over 8 grams of protein.
So. I know its been a hot minute since I’ve shared a recipe with all of you… In my defense, this summer has been crazy in my world. Absolutely insane I tell ya. But, irregardless of how long its been, today I’ve got some wild news to share with these peanut butter banana muffins!
I know wild is a relative term coming from a gal a few weeks shy of 30 that just ordered a puzzle off Amazon because it sounded like a good time. But a puzzle with glow in the dark koalas? How can one resist such a thing? I obviously can’t.
All that frumpiness aside, I promise that this is newsworthy. A week ago I quit my job. Boom. There it is. I’m jobless… and absolutely thrilled about it.
Catch me again in a few months when I’m destitute and regretting this reckless move, but today, well, today feels great.
With the amount of travel and responsibility added to my position over the past year, I’m long overdue for a change. I’ve played the corporate game before and when the small energy efficiency consulting firm I work for got bought out a few months ago, I decided that I needed a break before jumping right into something new. Life is too short to stay at a job that isn’t fulfilling.
So, here I am. Eating one of these scrumptious peanut butter banana muffins, drinking some wine, and flip flopping between excitement and full on manic anxiety. More wine is obviously needed…
So, now that the cat’s out of the bag, I’ll give you all the deets on these muffins. First of all, peanut butter and banana – hellooo deliciousness! This combo, also fondly referred to as the “Elvis,” since apparently the 50’s heartthrob ate PB and banana sammies when he wasn’t pelvis thrusting and singing his way into teen girl’s hearts across the globe.
There’s a little nugget of food related history for ya. I think Elvis even threw bacon in the mix, which sounds totally weird… but almost good at the same time? I mean, its not on my top ten list of things to try but I wouldn’t shoot it down completely.
Bacon or no bacon, these peanut butter banana muffins are pretty darn delightful. They are flour free and use ground up oats or oat flour as a base instead. This means that all you have to do to go gluten free is sub in gluten free oats.
Simple and super healthy. Just the way I like it.
For those of you who have been following my kitchen escapades for a while, you might be doing a double take since these peanut butter banana muffins seem eerily similar to the banana gluten free muffin recipe I shared a while back. Well, take my word for it that they are in fact quite different, and I think even a *wee bit* better.
Not to diss my own recipe, but I’ve made these four times in the last two weeks. FOUR. And, I’ve been busy and not in a muffin making mood in the slightest. That is how much I’ve been loving them.
One time, I used two smallish bananas and didn’t measure to make sure I had a full cup of mashed banana. That time they turned out a bit dry so make sure you have enough banana going into this recipe, or scale the rest of the recipe down if you don’t have quite enough.
Also, you want those bananas covered in brown speckles. The ones pictured are merely for decor and are not banana muffin ready. The brown spots make them sweeter meaning you don’t need as much added sugar. Its a sneaky healthy muffin trick that I use time and time again.
The muffins in these pictures don’t have chocolate chips in them, but if you have some on hand, toss ’em in. You’ll love it. I went ahead and factored them into the nutrition facts assuming we’d be on the same page about that. What’s a few chocolate chips between friends?
- 1 cup mashed ripe banana (2 extra large or 3 small)
- 1 cup creamy natural peanut butter
- ⅓ cup honey
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- 1⅓ cup oat flour (grind 1¾ cup oats in food processor or blender)
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips (optional - but included in nutrition facts)
- Cooking spray or muffin wrappers
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix mashed banana, peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and eggs using a hand mixer. Make sure that you use a full cup of mashed banana and measure that first.
- Add dry ingredients and blend with hand mixer while scraping the sides of the mixing bowl until just mixed together. Do not overmix! Stir in chocolate chips (optional).
- Spray muffin tin with cooking spray or line with muffin wrappers. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each cup almost to the top.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until muffins are cooked through. Don't over bake or they'll be dry!
Thanks for this fairly healthy recipe! I just looked at another “healthy” banana oat muffin recipe and it had a full cup of sugar! That is 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of sugar in each muffin, not including the sugar in the banana! I was considering making that recipe and cutting the added sweetener down to 1/4 cup, or eliminating it altogether. So I’m glad to see a recipe that starts out with the 1/4 cup of sweetener! I like your addition of peanut butter too. Lately my Middle Schooler has been laying in bed until the last minute and then runs out the door to make it to the school bus stop without eating. We have a lot of dietary issues, don’t eat processed foods, and so she doesn’t have grab and go options other than taking an apple or banana. I tried to get her to take at least a hard boiled egg with the fruit, but she won’t. Apparently it’s too weird to be eating an egg at the bus stop. LOL
Haha, hard boiled egg at the bus stop! That seriously made me LOL thinking of myself at that age – I wouldn’t have been caught dead casually munching a hard boiled egg like that! LOL. Kids are so fickle. All that added sweetener is the reason I created this muffin recipe! I tried it without the honey and its still edible but I just like a touch of natural sweetener to make it delicious, not just edible. And the oats make me feel like I’m eating portable oatmeal. I’ve got tons of other muffin recipes that use natural sweetener but this and the almond butter muffin recipe are really the only ones that are loaded with protein like this. 😉
Christy,
Have you ever subbed pumpkin for the Peanut Butter? It’s not that I don’t like peanut butter, I have pumpkin to use up. The consistency of pb is much thicker than pumpkin so am wondering if you think it will work?
They sound delicious and from all the positive comments, I will certainly try with the peanut butter too!
Thanks,
Susie
Ha! I was actually just thinking I should do a pumpkin version of this recipe! I think you’d have to do half pumpkin and half coconut oil or something like that because peanut butter is naturally fattier and it would be to dry without it. Those are just my initial thoughts though I haven’t tested it yet.
Thanks for your response Christy. I really appreciate it as I’ve seen blogs where the owner doesn’t respond and that totally turns me off and I will not even attempt to make whatever it is I’m looking at!
I feel you on that Susie. That can definitely be frustrating. That being said, I didn’t login and check comments for about six weeks after having my daughter so I’m guilty sometimes myself… 🙂 If you try making these with pumpkin let me know how it turns out! If I come up with a recipe for them soon, I’ll email it over to you!
Well that situation is totally understandable! I decided to make your recipe as is cuz I did not want them to not turn out and waste all the ingredients! I’m very happy to report that my husband and daughter LOVE them and they’ve become our new favorite! I’ve made them twice and the second time I doubled the recipe and put the remainder in the freezer!
Thanks!
Susie
These are the best! Made a batch today and my toddler was crying ’cause he said he doesn’t like peanut butter and the kitchen smelled like peanut butter all over haha! He was asking me to make another batch without peanut butter, but as soon as he took a bite of this, he changed his mind. Both my kids love them. I’m eating one as I’m typing this. These are divine!!! Thank you!
Haha, love that story! Peanut butter is good stuff – he’ll be happy he changed his mind someday. 🙂
omg thank you so much! I wanted to make gluten free muffins with gluten free oat flour and after trying other recipes, this is the only one that worked perfectly! They taste delicious, are moist and the texture is perfect. I added a bit of chopped apple. Love them!
So happy to hear it! I LOVE the idea of adding chopped apple! I’m actually making another version of GF oat flour muffins that I’m hoping to share next month so stay tuned! 🙂
I was skeptical. Was positive this was going to be yet another oat flour substituted for flour, gone terribly wrong. Glad you proved me wrong. This are so good. Moist, great flavor, light. Thanks! So glad I found your website!
Well, it took quite a few tries that’s for sure. Baking with oat flour takes just the right measurements or it can get really gummy. I’ve got a few new oat flour recipes I’m working on so stay tuned. 😉
Hi Christy. I love these muffins! They are very easy for me to eat but for my 1 y.o. son they are fairly crumbly and seem to either fall apart in his hand sometimes and/or aren’t easy for him to chew and swallow all the time (he eats lots of bread so I’ve noticed this is unique to these muffins). I’m not sure if this is just an oat flour thing? I’ve toyed with adding some additional greek yogurt or maybe chia seeds or both to help bind but thought I’d ask if you have any suggestions.
Hi Hannah! I wish I had a better answer for you but I think that may just be how oat flour is. Whenever I use oat flour in baking, I notice I’ve got to chew it a little bit more before swallowing. No problem for me, but I can certainly see how that would be hard on a toddler that’s just learning to eat. If I come up with a solution I’ll be sure to share it here.
I just made these & OMG, they are sooo yummy! They are so moist &. Flavorful. They’re my new favorite food!!!! You’d never know they’re healthy 😉
I know, right?? This is definitely one of my main go to recipes when my bananas get a little too brown. 🙂
These muffins are delicious! My 3 year old son and I made them together, and we are going to call them minion muffins 🙂 “Bananas!!!”
Minion muffins!! I love it. Happy to hear you both liked them. 🙂
Just tried this… Used frozen bananas thawed. Wonderful !!!!
I do that too! My freezer always has at least 8 bananas shoved in random places.
Made a batch yesterday and loved them. They turned out perfect! Yum!
Yay! Happy to hear it! I’m actually whipping up some muffins right now. Great minds think alike. 😉
Hi..
I have tried this recipe today but not happy with results.. My muffin was too moist from inside that i didn’t get proper fluff.. From center it went down.. This is my second experience with banana nd honey .. i think i won’t try once more same combo.
113 gm honey i used with 1 cup banana.. 255 gm peanut butter.. Did i put wrong measurement
Bummer! I love this recipe and it has always turned out great for me. When I googled gram to cup conversions, I got different measurements. I put them in a comment above. I haven’t tested these amounts because I don’t bake that way, but I’d assume that’s your problem. Hope that helps!
Delish!!!
Thank you for sharing!!
I forgot to mention I used chunky peanut and they were super good and I love that little crunch in there.
Oooh, that crunch does sound good. Gonna have to try that next time.
So happy that you liked the recipe Erika!
wow these sound awesome. Thanks so much for this recipe. can’t wait to make these.
Simon
They’re one of my all time favorites! I hope you like them. 🙂
can i use almond butter or hazelnut butter?thanks
I’ve never tried it but don’t see why not. It will have a different flavor of course, but should work!
Hi there, just stumbled upon your blog and was wandering if I could sub 1/4-1/2 the PB for yoghurt or apple sauce? Thanks! 🙂
I have never tried it so I’m not sure but it sounds like it could work. They might be a tad bit drier because there would be less fat. Let me know if you try – I’d love to see how it turns out!
Hi these look delicious! was wondering how many grams there are in a cup? many thanks!
I haven’t measured this myself in grams but Google is telling me that 1 1/3 cups of oats is approximately 120 grams; 1 cup of mashed banana is 300 grams; 1 cup peanut butter is 226 grams. I hope that helps!
These are my favourite muffin to make for myself and my family. I have made them 4-5 times now and every time they come out moist, perfectly sweetend and firm. I have made many gluten free muffin flops, but these are a sure thing. Thanks for this recipe! I never would have thought of subbing out oil for peanut butter. The last time I made them I only had a half cup of peanut butter, so I topped up with olive oil (literally the only oil left in my house), and they still came out with a great peanut buttery flavour.
Hi Chelsea – these are one of my favorites too! I did the same thing a few months ago, but with avocado oil. It turned out great and you couldn’t even tell. 🙂
Thanks, very similar to others I was looking at but with the addition of oats. How long would you bake for minimuffins instead??
Jen – so sorry, I just saw this comment from a few months ago. If you haven’t done this already, maybe try 8 minutes, test and then see if they need more time.
I was looking for something like this! They turned out great and look as pretty as the ones in the picture. I sub agave syrup for the honey and got excellent results. Awesome for breakfast, dessert or as a snack. Thank you so much for the recipe!
I’m happy to hear you like them as much as we do! I’ve subbed agave before and it turned out great for me too. 🙂
These look really good! Could I substitute maple syrup instead of honey?
Hi Katie – this is definitely one of my favorite muffin recipes. I haven’t tried doing that so I can’t guarantee that the consistency would be the same. If you try it though please let me know! I’d love to hear how it works.
I make these quite often and they are delicious! I add a little bit of Greek yogurt and they are as moist and fluffy as ever. Thanks!
Ha, I was just snacking on a blueberry muffin with Greek yogurt that I’m posting soon. Glad you liked these muffins and thanks for the yogurt tip!
OMG! This muffins are heaven! I used to use the banana muffins recipe from Tyler Florence but now this recipe will be my new fave! (Sorry Tyler). It’s the BEST! and healthy. My husband and my little kids especially my son was begging for more. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Glad you liked them so much Charlotte! This is my go-to muffin recipe for those times when I want to bring someone something carb filled and delicious, but still somewhat nutritious. Everyone seems to love them. 🙂
How should the muffins be stored after baking? In the fridge? They are delicious!!!
Hi Taylor! I stored them in an air tight container on the counter, but they would probably last longer in the fridge. Glad you liked them! This recipe is one of my favorites! 🙂
Yum!
Thanks Renee! They certainly are! 🙂
Hi Christy, can these be frozen?
Hi Karen! I’ve never tried with this recipe. I think it would probably be okay, but the texture might be a little off when you defrost. Hope it works out well for you!
I always make a double batch and then freeze them individually. I grab one on my way to work each day and eat it an hour or so later when it is thawed. I just made a batch and man are they delicious! Guilt free way to have a muffin for breakfast. Lots of protein and a great flavor.
Happy to hear they freeze well! I can’t wait to try this with my next batch.