I’ve been wanting to make these for days. Peanut butter, banana, oatmeal, all in a low-point, low-fat, healthy muffin? Sold.
I had some icky brown bananas ready, too. The only reason I had to wait an extra day was because I spent Tuesday night making Snickerdoodle Mini Loaves for Miff’s birthday. By Wednesday I was eager to get started and the bananas were even more disgusting. Perfect.
I started with whole wheat white flour, then added a cup of rolled oats.
Baking powder, baking soda, and salt were added to that, and whisked together. (Next time I’ll add a teaspoon of cinnamon as well.)
I put that aside, then got out another bowl and plopped my two gigantic bananas in there.
I mashed those bananas up good. It was a little cathartic.
I added applesauce, brown sugar, and eggs. And I didn’t realize this until now, but it looked like a demented happy face!
To the smiley face, I added peanut butter. You know, peanut butter is the type of ingredient you should only have to measure out once if you can help it. It’s very sticky and hard to pry out of measuring cups or off of spoons. And this recipe requires six tablespoons of it. I confess I wasn’t very precise. In terms of moderation I fail completely when it comes to peanut butter. I can never get enough. So each tablespoon was at least generous, and I added an extra glop at the end.
Next up was a cup of low-fat buttermilk, but I only had half a cup. I figured I’d use yogurt for the rest, and then I noticed someone posted a comment on the original recipe, saying she used Greek yogurt instead. So I did the same for the rest of the cup. Plop!
Once whisked, it looked a lot better.
I added the dry ingredients to it.
Once it was all mixed together — but not overmixed — it looked like normal muffin batter.
I divided it among the 18 muffin cups, two trays, and decided they needed a little something extra, so I added three peanut butter chips to the top of each one.
They took a much longer time to bake than I expected. I had heated the oven to 375 and reduced to 350 for the baking, but after 15 minutes, they weren’t done. 20. Still not done. Took a few more minutes before I felt confident that they wouldn’t be undercooked. They smelled fantastic the whole time, though. Peanut butter is intoxicating.
Once done, they looked pretty tasty.
It was hard to wait for them to cool, I admit.
The night I made them, the flavor was great but the texture was off, just a little spongy. The flavors were strong and complemented each other perfectly, but the muffin stuck to the paper and didn’t seem quite right.
By the next morning, no more stickiness.
I brought them in to work and bravely asked for feedback. The general consensus was that they were delicious, and the texture was because of the oats, and that was a good thing. The flavor was a hit. At least two people ate two of them. I relaxed.
I just had another one this morning and here is where I have netted out:
- A little less banana would be good, I think I used slightly more than a cup because the bananas I had were huge.
- A teaspoon of cinnamon would add a nice accent.
- Slightly fewer oats, maybe just under half a cup, would give the crumbs a little breathing room.
- Regular yogurt instead of buttermilk & Greek yogurt would probably lighten them up just right.
That said, they are pretty good, and I am going to try again very soon because I LOVE eating peanut butter, banana, and oats in the morning! My co-workers offered to devour any new ones I brought in from the original batch, so I know i’m on to something here. i just want them to be as perfect as some of my other current breakfast favorites: the banana yogurt muffins, the pumpkin muffins, and the carrot oatmeal muffins. I’ll do it. Stay tuned!
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