Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins
Updated March 26, 2019
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!
Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins
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
Delicious! I make a variation of these, but I definitely want to try this recipe. I love anything with bananas!
These look great, I love how simple the ingredient list is!
Any muffin that includes banana is my kinda muffin!
I love banana oat muffins! Yours look so good.
This is such a fun guest post. You gals make a great pair!! I love following both of your blogs & I can’t wait to meet you both for real. These muffins are simple & chock full of good for us ingredients. Thanks for a great recipe.
I’m a huge muffin fan, these look scrumptious! Have a great weekend girl!
Looks delicious! I love Michelle and her blog – great guest post! 🙂
this used to be the only way to get bananas inside of me…i think i need to revert to that again 🙂
What a lovely guest post by the Brown Eyed Baker! I love banana-flavored treats, especially muffins! Yum!
Love this recipe. Thanks so much to you both for sharing it.
Great guest post! I love Michelle’s blog…all of her baked goods are fantastic! These being no exception.
These look SO moist and delicious! And I’m always looking for something to do with those too-ripe-to-eat bananas. Yum!
Already love Brown Eyed Baker and LOVE banana muffins. Fun guest post.
You had me at banana!!! Looks delicious!!!
Hi haven’t made bran muffins in so long… you’ve just reminded me how much I like them!
Ohhhhh… yum! I love a good banana muffin recipe. And I love the simple, yummy photo. And I’m so happy to see a guest post; I’ve been thinking about doing the same on my blog like… forever… I just need to get my rear in gear and do it! You’ve inspired me to get movin!
Yummy, these look delicious girls! Great recipe and a must try. Banana anything is a favorite in my house.
Have a great Labor Day weekend!
I should make some bran muffins for my husband, banana is one of his favorites too!
Wonderful recipe, Michelle! I can see why these became a family favorite.
fluffy, filling fabulousness.
Wow, I am surprised at how light these are! I have never cooked with oat bran and now I’m intrigued. Thanks for sharing, Michelle.
I’ve never tried oat bran either but plan to get some soonest to make this excellent recipe. These look to be perfect breakfast muffins: simple, light, healthy, and presumably adaptable to other seasonal fruits and nuts also.
Thank you so much for having me and letting me share an old family recipe, Maria! I hope your readers enjoy the muffins!
Yum, yum! This would be the perfect on-the-go breakfast for me! They look delicious, thanks for sharing!
I am a muffin addict and need some good healthy muffns. These look fantastic!
I see your comments
Oat Bran – your way to good health!
Oat bran is one of the best foods available in the nature. WHY? simply beacuse it is rich in fibre and important minerals and low in carbs and fat!
It has also got some protein so it helps to build muscles and improve strength.
I have a question – I have bran cereal, Do you think that I could put it in my food processor and then use it? Sorry if this is bad question.
I think it would work. I have never tried it, but great idea! Let me know how it goes!
Made them today..tastes good for a healthier muffin recipe…love easy ingredient list.
Glad you liked the muffins!
Hi, can you give a measurement for the mashed bananas? There can be quite a difference in banana size. Esp for me, as i live in the Philippines. Thanks.
You need about 1 cup of mashed banana.
Ok, thanks, that is what I used. But I have another question. Maria said above that the batter would be thin. How could it be thin? There’s very little liquid in the recipe. No milk or cooking oil. My batter was thick, and the muffins turned out kind of heavy. They weren’t smooth across the top like the picture. They were lumpy as if they didn’t rise at all.
This is not my recipe, it was a guest post from Brown Eyed Baker, but I would guess the batter would have to be somewhat thick due to the bran.
I LOVE healthy recipe’s, especially ones that replace white flour and sugar with other healthier ingredients. However, this recipe seems like it is missing an ingredient…milk or oil perhaps? I made them exactly as the recipe states and they did not turn out at all. I was so very disappointed, especially after using over 2 cups of oat bran! Brown Eyed Baker, can you look over the recipe and see if something got inadvertently omitted? Thank you! I’d love to try this again if anyone has suggestions!
I just tried the Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins for the first time (minus the nuts), and I have to tell you these were absolutely outstanding! I was quite surprised at how tasty and moist and flavorful they were. They turned out to be a beautiful muffin as well. I will be sure to make this recipe again and again. I made it exactly as the recipe called for with the Agave and the egg whites. The only item I left out was the nuts. They were perfect! I made mine in the muffin cups to make them easy to take.
I just pulled these out of the oven and couldn’t wait to try one. They are AMAZING!!
I love how nutritious they are and that they have the perfect amount of sweetness.
I’ll be using this recipe again and again! 🙂 Thank you!
So happy you liked the muffins!
Batter was very thick, like cookie dough. Followed recipe. Should there be milk? I did mix with a mixer.
In making these today I noticed that the comments before the recipe said it would be very wet. From what? When I mixed them the batter was extremely dry. I read and re-read the ingredients and I cannot see how 2 bananas, 2 T. honey and 2 egg whites would be enough wet ingredients for all that oat bran. I did add 1/3 c. applesauce which helped somewhat, but they were still very dry. Is the recipe correct? Thank you.
Bad recipe . Very thick and dry. Please ask Michelle to repost with accurate measurements or step by step pictures. No milk? No water? THIS WAS NOT THIN!
Michelle realized she did leave out the milk. I am so sorry! The recipe is now updated!
I was looking for an oatbran, banana recipe with sour cream. This one was close, so I altered it as follows and it is great… I used dark brown sugar, 3 mashed bananas, 2 eggs (yolks included), in place of honey, I used 2 heaping tablespoons of non-fat sour cream, I added: tablespoon or two of maple syrup, one tsp of cinnamon and one tsp of vanilla extract. I made a loaf instead of muffins, using a buttered loaf pan. I cooked for 15 minutes at 425 degrees and then lowered temp to 350 and cooked an additional 20-25 minutes, until the knife came out clean when inserted in center. Thanks for the recipe!
I am a very experienced baker, particularly with quickbreads of all kinds. As others who have ACTUALLY made this recipe have commented, the ingredients listed give a VERY thick batter that is closer to a wet drop-biscuit or cookie dough batter consistency. I see that Michelle is still active on her blog, so why doesn’t she please address this issue here with her recipe? I had successful results only by adding 1/3 c applesauce, 1/3 c milk, and 1 egg to the recipe.
Ok, I finally got ahold of Michelle. She feels so bad, but there is supposed to be 1 1/4 cups milk in the recipe. I updated the recipe! Sorry for the confusion!
This was very dry. Does seem like it is missing something. What is the calorie count?
Michelle left out 1 1/4 cups milk. I am so sorry for any trouble it caused! The recipe is now updated!
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?
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!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
Oh! Silly me. I guess the milk was left out of the recipe originally. That explains it.
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!
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!
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!
Great recipe! Thank you. Do you know how many calories approximately are in each one?
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.
Made these with two whole eggs instead of whites, and buttermilk instead of milk. Delicious and toddler approved!!
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!
This recipe is delicious . It’ll be my go to bran muffin recipe.
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
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!
These came out perfect for me and are really good! I followed the recipe exactly and almond milk. Will definitely make these again!
Very good, but I was wondering if a touch of cinnamon would make them even better