Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins

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Today we have a special treat, a guest post from my dear blogging friend, Michelle, of Brown Eyed Baker. If you don’t already follow her delicious blog, check it out. You will be hooked! Thanks Michelle for being our first guest post ever and sharing your banana-nut oat bran muffin recipe. Enjoy friends!

I want to thank Maria for inviting me to do a guest post over here on Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria has become a great friend and is one of the kindest bloggers I’ve ever met. As far as food goes, I feel like we’re perfect complements –  I stuff myself full of sugar, chocolate and peanut butter and she pulls me back from the edge with awesome recipes like edamame guacamole, zucchini cookies, and bright melon salads. And she definitely cemented a place in my heart with her Fluffernutter Cookies. I love the style of her blog, the simple and mouth-watering recipes she creates, and I especially love that her and her husband have such a great time in the kitchen together!

When Maria asked me to do a post over here I asked if she had any specific type of recipe in mind. She said I could choose whatever I wanted, and so I did some brainstorming. I ended up choosing a recipe that pays homage to Maria’s healthy lifestyle and to my baking roots: Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins.

These muffins were the very first thing that I ever helped to bake in the kitchen. Back when I was in elementary school my dad was told he had slightly high cholesterol and that he could improve it through diet. My mom received this recipe from my aunt, who had been making these muffins for my uncle, who had previously suffered a heart attack. I’m not sure where the recipe originally came from, but they soon became a weekly staple at our house. Every Sunday night my mom would make a batch, and let me help with the mixing. They are so easy that after awhile I had the recipe almost memorized myself! This was also the recipe that enabled me to learn how to separate eggs. Thanks to my mom for teaching me, it has certainly come in handy with all of the egg yolks I use when making homemade ice cream!

Like almost all muffins, these are very quick to get together and get baked; we’re talking mixed, baked and out of the oven in 30 minutes. It’s hard to beat that! You’ll notice that the batter is very thin once it’s mixed together, but that’s okay – the oat bran soaks up a lot of that in the baking process and keeps the muffins nice and moist.

The original recipe calls for corn syrup, which I have substituted with agave nectar and you could also use honey. These muffins lend themselves well to a lot of adaptations – I like to add some cinnamon, you can switch up the nuts, add some dried fruit, etc. It’s a great base recipe for letting your creative juices flow. My dad, who was a faithful devotee to Snickers and ice cream (I think we all know where I got my palate from!), loved these so much that even after his cholesterol returned to normal he still requested that my mom make them. I hope you enjoy them as much as he did!

Thanks again to Maria and Josh for allowing me to share this old family recipe with you, I hope you enjoy it!

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Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins

4.77 from 17 votes

Ingredients
  

  • 2-1/4 cups oat bran
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • 2 bananas mashed
  • 2 egg whites
  • 2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey
  • 1/4 cup walnuts chopped

Instructions
 

  • 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper cups.
  • 2. In a large bowl, whisk together the oat bran, baking powder and brown sugar. In a separate medium bowl, mix together the milk, mashed bananas, egg whites and agave nectar.
  • 3. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Fold in the walnuts. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Bake until the muffins are lightly browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 12 to 15 minutes.
  • 4. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Serve at room temperature or reheat in the microwave and top with your favorite jam, butter or even peanut butter.

Have you tried this recipe?

Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag @twopeasandpod and hashtag it with #twopeasandtheirpod

If you like these banana muffins, you might also like:

Banana Cinnamon Chip Cake from Two Peas and Their Pod
Banana Fosters Bread from Brown Eyed Baker
Banana Nut Muffins from Simply Recipes

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Maria

I'm Maria and my husband is Josh. We share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. We enjoy creating recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. We love sitting around the table with good food, good conversation, and good friends and family! Our kitchen is always open!
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  1. Like others who tried to make these muffins, I found the batter a far cry from thin/wet, and had to go rogue on the recipe. Here are the modifications that I made that seemed to yield a workable batter and a somewhat decent muffin in the end:

    Crucially – I added 1 cup applesauce, and 1/4 cup canola oil to thin out the batter. I might add a bit more of one or the other in future, as I barely got to 12 muffins with these additions. (Also, I’ll probably try coconut oil instead of canola next time. This time, honestly I just grabbed whatever was handy to try and salvage the recipe.)

    I also subbed 1/4 cup all purpose flour for 1/4 cup of the oat bran–I thought that this might make the muffins a bit smoother, and it did.

    Finally, I added approximately 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon.

    Other possibilities – milk as some folks have suggested? Yogurt? Has anyone had success with other kinds of modifications? It would be great if Maria would respond with the corrected recipe or maybe with some comment about what may be going wrong?

    1. Hi Miriam-I finally got an email from Michelle. She feels really bad but she realized she left out 1 1/4 cups milk. I updated the recipe. Sorry for the confusion!

  2. Hi. I noticed that milk is now listed in the recipe. It wasn’t there the last time I tried this, as some others also commented. But I still don’t like the recipe. I’m missing the salt! I suppose thats because they’re supposed to be healthy.

  3. Hey, love this recipe so much! Just wondering though (someone may have asked it before, if so my bad!) what would I have to change in the recipe to make these muffins into a healthier version of a banana cake? Cooking time?

    Thanks a bunch!

    1. 5 stars
      These are delicious. I was concerned they wouldn’t firm up because the batter seemed too loose. I did cook a little longer maybe 5 minutes and to brown a little more. They are perfect. My husband likes them too. P.s. I did add a few raisins.

  4. just baked these, but had to substitute some ingredients because of lack there of. I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour, and 1/4 cup of oats instead of bran. and I left out the walnuts – though I wish I had some. turned out pretty good! my 4 year old is delighted – so that means I passed the test. thanks for sharing!

  5. Just made these and because they didn’t look like the picture, I thought I’d read the comments. I would have loved for my muffins to come out looking sugary like the photos. I think I’ll let them settle in the muffin tins a little next time to see if that helps create that lovely top. I will add a pinch of salt next time because I like how a little salt balances the flavors. I found it interesting that there were several comments asking if there was supposed to be milk in the recipe. I was concerned about the runny-ness of the batter, but decided since it was all bran and no flour that I would trust it. So glad I did, these muffins are not fluffy and cake like, they’re dense and firm, but really, what can you expect from a muffin made entirely of bran? I was really happy with the level of sweetness and I’m excited to find a recipe that’s GOOD and great for my husbands high cholesterol. Oat bran is SO good for that. I added a few tablespoons of ground flax seed. I find that adding a little flaxseed doesn’t change anything in baking, just adds nutrition and fiber. My husband will love how dense and firm these muffins are. That’s the way he prefers baked goods. Thanks for the recipe; I love it.

  6. I just found this recipe recently. I bought 3 bags of oat bran because I was also told I had high cholesterol. I tried eating the bran like oatmeal but it’s messy and bland. I made a batch of these muffins last night and was SHOCKED at how easy and delicious they are! I made a few changes. I used coconut sugar, honey and added 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce as well as cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg. So good!

  7. Found this recipe on Pinterest and loved it!  Mine turned out just like the pictures, and tasted incredible. I did not make any substitutions the first time, except I omitted the honey/agave, just because I didn’t have any.  The second time I used Silk Almond/coconut milk and they are great. I have since used the base with a variety of add-ins…cranberry walnut, blueberry, chocolate chip and they are all great. If you are expecting a bakery style muffin, filled with sugar and additives, this will disappoint. It is definitely a healthy muffin with a wholesome taste. Thanks for the great recipe!

  8. 5 stars
    How are these so good? They are soooo good. My husband, who is always suspicious of healthy cooking, loved these, too. No oil, no flour–there’s nothing to dislike about these muffins. I actually chose to make these because I had two overripe bananas, not the three required by most recipes. I will choose to make them again because they’re wonderful. Thanks for the great muffins!

  9. I was looking for a recipe specifically using oat bran to lower my cholesterol and I found a great recipe in this one. I love the texture of this muffin, the low sugar and low fat quality to it and the ease and swiftness of preparation. I added some raisins the 2nd time I made them but omitted the nuts and they turned out very nice.

  10. 5 stars
    Made these with two whole eggs instead of whites, and buttermilk instead of milk. Delicious and toddler approved!!

    1. I was reading the reviews to see if I could use whole eggs instead of just the whites. Thank you for trying and recommending this option!

  11. Just made these according to the recipe. Only thing I changed was I used milk instead of dairy milk. Added some raisins, and they were absolutely delicious. Thank you so much

  12. 4 stars
    As written the recipe is very tasty, but it comes out a little dense & crumbly. I made the following changes/additions and they crowned nicely with a softer texture. 1) If you have a nutri-bullet or similar, mill half the oat bran + 2T flax seed + 1T Chia seed into a fine flour, this helps lighten the texture, and add healthy fiber & fats. 2) Add 3 egg whites instead of 1, + ½t of baking soda and ¼t salt – these aid in the crowning/lift making for a less dense muffin. Also, soy milk seems to be a perfect equivalent for the milk in the recipe. We love them with walnuts, mini chocolate chips & more rough diced bananas folded in! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

  13. 5 stars
    These came out perfect for me and are really good! I followed the recipe exactly and almond milk. Will definitely make these again!

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