Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

These muffins are amazing.  In fact, they are so delicious, I think you could almost call them cupcakes.  I know muffins are for breakfast, but I have no shame in admitting I’ve eaten them for dessert.  The bananas and chocolate go so well together and the cinnamon and nutmeg add a bit of warmth.  My mouth is watering just writing about them!

Maybe the best part?  They’re healthy!  They use half white and half wheat flour and there’s no refined sugar.  Natural sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, and apple butter are used.  There’s only a scant quarter cup of oil; not too shabby.  I like to make mini muffins for portion control, but they’re great as regular size too!

The original recipe is from Food Network’s Healthy Eats and calls for whole wheat pastry flour.  I couldn’t find that, so I used regular whole wheat flour.  It also calls for unbleached organic all-purpose flour, but I used regular all-purpose flour.  They turned out juuuust fine. 🙂

Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup apple butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup unsweetened soymilk
• 1 cup unbleached  all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips (use minis for mini muffins)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sauce pan, combine syrup, honey, bananas, cinnamon, nutmeg, oil, apple butter, vanilla, and soy milk. Whisk together and heat on low for 4-5 minutes, until just warmed.   Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, sift together flours, baking soda and salt. Add banana mixture to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Make sure batter has cooled, then stir in about 3/4 of the chocolate chips.

Spray muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray.  Scoop batter into muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 full.  Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top of each muffin.

For large muffins, bake 20-25 minutes.  For minis, bake 13-15 minutes.