Even though my mom rarely baked, she occasionally bought a few extra bananas on her weekly grocery trips to leave on the counter to ripen during my early childhood. The following weekend, she pulled out a faded yellowing card with my dad’s special recipe scrawled across the paper for banana muffins that he developed in graduate school.
Although fairly basic, Mom insisted the muffins tasted better than anything store-bought, especially fresh from the oven, split it two, and with a small pat of butter placed on each half that melted down into the muffin’s crooks and crannies. However, I refused to try one for years because I was terrified that there would be chunks of banana in the muffins… And I hated “bits” like fruit and nuts in my food!
Eventually, after much coaxing and explaining that the bananas were fully mashed into a smooth paste, not chopped up into pieces to fold into the batter, Mom finally convinced me to try a muffin. With its sweet and cozy flavors, I was immediately hooked!
Shortly after, Mom started buying us jumbo-sized muffins from the grocery store bakery as a quick and easy breakfast for my brother and me during our road trips to Disneyland, San Diego, or the mountains for camping trips. Whenever I tagged along, I looked at the banana muffins first… But they all contained nuts both inside the muffins and on top!
Instead, I opted for the lemon poppy seed jumbo muffins… Because (a) poppy seeds were too small to count as “bits,” and (b) those only had slivered almonds pressed into their tops, not inside of the muffins, which I could easily pick off and hand over to Dad!
As I became older, “bits” started to grow on me, so earlier this year, I decided to try baking my first batch of banana muffins with nuts. After a few tweaks, I perfected this recipe for the Ultimate Healthy Banana Nut Muffins! Perfectly sweet with pecans sprinkled throughout, these muffins are as tender as cupcakes. Even better, they contain no butter, refined flour or sugar and only 125 calories!
So… Would you blame me for eating four in one day? Breakfast… Mid-morning snack… Mid-afternoon snack… Dessert…
Guess it’s already time to make more?
To make these healthy muffins, you’ll start with white whole wheat flour. That sounds like a paradox, doesn’t it? Normally white flour and whole wheat flour are two separate things! However, white whole wheat flour is made by finely grinding a special type of softer white wheat, whereas regular whole wheat flour comes from a heartier variety of red wheat. This gives white whole wheat flour a lighter taste and texture, similar to that of all-purpose flour (and perfect for letting the tender texture of these muffins shine!), but it still has the same health benefits as regular whole wheat flour.
Whereas traditional recipes call for ½ to 1 full cup of oil (yikes!!), this healthier one only requires 1 tablespoon of coconut oil. That’s it! The rest of the muffins’ tender texture comes from Greek yogurt and mashed banana. If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you know how much I love Greek yogurt! It adds the same moisture as extra butter or oil for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your baked treats a protein boost, too.
As for the mashed banana, it actually plays three roles: flavor (I’m sure you already guessed that!), tender texture, and natural sweetness. Try to use the spottiest bananas you can find! Those have more natural sweetness than pure yellow bananas, which means you’ll only need to add a few tablespoons of honey to the batter.
For the nuts, you’ll add finely chopped pecans to the batter. Both pecans and walnuts are traditional in banana nut muffins—and both will work!—but since my mom is allergic to walnuts, I opted for pecans so I could share them with her. You’ll want to chop the pecans to be about the size of miniature chocolate chips to ensure the muffin batter bakes evenly. And don’t forget to save some to press into the tops for a pretty presentation!
Ready to bake your own?? And when you do, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your ultimate healthy banana nut muffins!
| The Ultimate Healthy Banana Nut Muffins | | Print |
- 2 cups (240g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ¾ cup (200g) mashed banana (about 2 medium)
- 2 tbsp (30mL) honey
- ¼ cup (60mL) nonfat milk
- ¼ cup (28g) finely diced pecans, divided
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat 12 standard-sized muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the mashed Greek yogurt, stirring until no large lumps remain. Mix in the mashed banana and honey. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 3 equal parts.) Fold in 3 ½ tablespoons of pecans.
- Spread the batter into the prepared muffin cups, and gently press the remaining pecans on top. Bake at 350°F for 19-21 minutes or until the centers feel firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Whole wheat pastry flour, regular whole wheat flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the white whole wheat flour.
For best results, use the ripest, darkest, most spottiest bananas you can find!
The mashed banana and Greek yogurt combined need to measure 1 cup. If you have slightly more than ¾ cup mashed banana, then reduce the Greek yogurt by the same amount, and vice versa.
Pure maple syrup or agave may be substituted for the honey.
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
Walnuts (or any other nuts!) may be substituted for the pecans. To ensure the muffin batter bakes evenly, make sure the chopped nuts are about the same size as mini chocolate chips.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ The Ultimate Healthy Blueberry Muffins
♡ The Ultimate Healthy Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
♡ Chocolate Chip Banana Mini Muffins
♡ Blueberry Banana Bran Muffins
♡ Strawberry Blueberry Banana Bread
♡ Chocolate Drizzled Raspberry Banana Bread
♡ Blueberry Buttermilk Banana Bread
♡ Strawberry Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
♡ Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Oatmeal Cookies
♡ Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Brownies
Hi Amy
Wondering if the Greek yogurt in this recipe (and others I’ve seen on your site ) can be subbed by buttermilk. I have a carton of open buttermilk and looking for healthy recipes with banana and oatmeal. And would be using monk fruit/erethrytol (Volupta) for sugar substitute. Both hubby and I watching sugar intake….thanks in advance!
Kim
I really appreciate your interest in my recipes, Kim! I haven’t tried using buttermilk as a substitute for Greek yogurt in my recipes, so I’m not personally sure and don’t want to lead you astray. I’d love to hear how it goes if you decide to experiment! Because it’s thinner in consistency, it might be a good idea to use around half as a much, at least to start, to avoid making batters and/or doughs too runny.
If you’d prefer to stick with recipes that already call for buttermilk as an ingredient, I do have a handful of those here, including some that call for bananas as an ingredient as well! (← If I had to choose a favorite recipe from that list, it’d probably be the waffles… I made a fresh batch every week for a few months straight!) Also, in case it’s helpful, here are direct links to my banana recipes and oat recipes.
Something to keep in mind… For erythritol/monk fruit sweeteners that say they’re 1:1 substitutes for sugar, I’ve found that’s not 100% true in my recipes. They sweeten like 1:1 substitutes, but they behave differently compared to sugar. Because of its different molecular structure, erythritol absorbs and dissolves differently in liquids compared to sugar. (I was a chemist before I became a baking blogger, so I love nerdy baking science facts like this!) As a result, you’ll need to add extra milk in order to achieve the same consistency and textures when substituting erythritol/monk fruit sweeteners in my recipes. My general rule of thumb is an extra 5-6 tablespoons of milk for every 1 cup of erythritol/monk fruit used to replace 1 cup of sugar.
For example, in this banana nut muffin recipe, you’d need 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon of milk to replace the honey. To convert that to your erythritol/monk fruit sweetener, you’d need 2 tablespoons of Volupta + 5 ¼ teaspoons of milk (aka 1 tablespoon + 2 ¼ teaspoons) to replace the honey. Does that make sense? 🙂
If you have questions about how to substitute Volupta’s erythritol/monk fruit sweetener in any specific recipe of mine, I’m happy to help! Just leave me a comment on that specific recipe. That’s the best and easiest way for me to provide you with the substitution and conversion!