Vegan Banana Peanut Butter Muffins

Moist and subtly sweet, with chunks of banana, peanut butter, and cinnamon, these li’l treats cost only 32 cents each to make.

Bert & Ernie. Laverne & Shirley. Bananas & peanut butter. One without the other just isn’t as good.

As a kid, I mostly associated the combination of banana and peanut butter with Elvis, who apparently enjoyed his banana and peanut butter sandwiches fried – perhaps a future post for this blog. Sorry, Elvis. I might steal your recipe.

I first made these vegan muffins last winter, using a banana bread recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie as the source of my first batch and eventually turning them into muffins.

I must have made these a dozen times, each time tweaking the recipe by adding more cinnamon, trying different substitutions, and, most importantly, incorporating peanut butter.

These are simple to make, entirely vegan, and only take 20 minutes to bake.

INGREDIENTS

Exact amounts are in the recipe at the end of this post.

• bananas
• rolled oats
• peanut butter
• coconut oil
• applesauce
• chia seeds
• cinnamon
• vanilla extract
• baking soda
• baking powder
• apple cider vinegar
• sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Additional instructions are in the recipe at the end of this post.

I like using oat flour and whole rolled oats in this recipe. Fortunately, you don’t need to buy two different things – you can buy rolled oats and make your own oat flour at home.

Simply pour the rolled oats into a food processor and process until it’s a fine powder. I grind mine for about one minute. If you buy oat flour from the store, it might be more finely ground than what you can do in a food processor, but it’s also more expensive.

I like grinding up a bunch of oats ahead of time and keeping the flour in a container in the fridge.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients – starting with the bananas.

It’s best to start with overripe bananas. These require mashing, and the riper, the softer and easier they will be to mash. It’s up to you how much to mash them. Personally, I like little chunks of bananas in my muffins, so I won’t go full mash. I’ll leave some chunks. I like chunks.

Combine all of he ingredients, mix until combined, and pour into a lined 12-muffin tin. Bake at 350ºF for about 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

TIPS

• Start with overripe bananas. The more overripe the bananas, the sweeter the muffins will be – and with no added sugar, syrup, or honey in this recipe, you want bananas that are sweet. The browner and spotteder, the betterer.
• Use natural peanut butter. The only ingredients in natural peanut butter should be peanuts and, if salted, salt. If the label says “spread” or includes sugar, avoid at all costs.
• Use soft peanut butter. Sometimes, with natural peanut butter, the further you get to the bottom of the jar, the harder it can be. If the peanut butter is cold from the fridge, leave it out until it reaches room temperature.
• Use unsweetened applesauce. Honestly, unsweetened applesauce is sweet on its own. I don’t see why added sugar is ever needed. In addition to the overripe bananas, this will help add to the natural sweetness of the muffins.
• Make sure the coconut oil is liquid, not solid. This might require heating it up briefly on the stove or microwave or letting it sit out at room temperature until it’s soft.
• Make sure the applesauce is at room temperature. If it’s straight from the fridge, heat it up briefly on the stove or microwave, or let it sit out at room temperature. You don’t want anything cold to combine with the coconut oil, or else the oil will harden and get lumpy.
• Add other stuff. Feel free to add any type of nuts, seeds, or chocolate chips to the batter. I would add these after all of the batter has been mixed.

SUBSTITUTIONS

Peanut butter. Of course, if you or anyone who might come in contact with these muffins has a peanut allergy, replace the peanut butter with almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter. I have also heard of using tahini in place of peanut butter.

Coconut oil. You should be able to replace the coconut oil with another oil or any type of milk. It just has to be liquid. I chose coconut oil for this recipe, as I wanted just a hint of extra moisture and healthy fats, but you can absolutely use regular or plant-based milk. (I love oat milk!)

Applesauce. Early on in making this recipe, I used maple syrup, then I used half syrup and half applesauce, and finally I decided to just use applesauce. I figured with overripe bananas and the naturally sweet applesauce, the sweetness in maple syrup wasn’t necessary – although I do love maple syrup, and if you want that flavor in these, try it.

COST BREAKDOWN

Fortunately, these banana peanut butter muffins are way cheaper than any muffin you’ll find at the store. My recipe cost, in total, $3.84 to make – or just 32 cents each.

Some of these ingredients are ones that I’ve used for this recipe – but if I’ve found much cheaper prices online, then I’ve included those prices instead. You may be able to find even cheaper ingredients. If you do, let me know in the comments!

• bananas: $0.46
• rolled oats: $0.93
• peanut butter: $0.14
• coconut oil: $0.62
• applesauce: $0.27
• chia seeds: $0.38
• cinnamon: $0.15
• vanilla extract: $0.56
• baking soda: $0.01
• baking powder: $0.02
• apple cider vinegar: $0.29
• sea salt: $0.02

Total cost: $3.84

Try buying a vegan muffin at the store for 32 cents. No, you can’t use a time machine.