Banana Applesauce Muffins

These muffins are easy and very low fat. The texture is creamy, but not overly sweet, so they’re more of a breakfast bread than a dessert. This was my first experiment in baking from scratch without a recipe, so I tried to keep it simple. In the future, I’d like to experiment with adding chunks of fresh/frozen/dried fruit.

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 2 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 Tbsp. canola oil
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Equipment

  • Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
  • Muffin pan (This recipe makes 18 regular muffins, so I like to use a 12-cup and a 6-cup muffin pan. That way there’s room for both to sit flat on the same rack in my oven.)

Directions

  1. Grease or line 18 muffin cups.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, mix sugar and applesauce.
  3. Mash bananas with a fork in a small dish. Stir in canola oil and vanilla.
  4. Add banana mixture to applesauce mixture. Mix well.
  5. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients (flours, brown sugar, spices, salt, baking soda, baking powder).
  6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  7. Add dry mixture to wet mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing on low speed.
  8. Mix on low then medium speed for a few minutes until smoothly blended. Stop periodically to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula if needed. There may still be small lumps of banana, but the overall texture and color should be smooth.
  9. Pour into muffin cups and bake for approximately 23-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Source

My own creation. Inspired by: (1) “Applesauce Cake” from Bethann Merriam, page 103 of Homemade with Love, the cookbook of Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church, Sunnyvale, California. Copyright 2003, Morris Press Cookbooks. (2) “Banana Bread,” page 39 of Just Like Evelyn, the Children’s Center Cookbook from the Cal Poly ASI Children’s Center, San Luis Obispo, California. Cookbook compiled by Evelyn Ruehr, November 2003, with design and production work by Marie Curtin.