Banana Mini Muffins

These teeny tiny banana muffins are perfect for those times when you want a quick and easy treat to enjoy on the go or when you need a mid-afternoon pick-me-up! Plus, they're so cute, how can you resist popping one after another into your mouth?

These banana muffins have a secret ingredient, which I think is a game-changer - toasted oats! Toasting your oats beforehand is going to make your muffins slightly nutty, giving you warm, comforting notes alongside the spices. I saw Julia Turshen use toasted oats in her muffins in one of my favorite cookbooks, so when I was testing this recipe, I knew I wanted to incorporate that!

When developing this recipe, I wanted to make sure you could get this done without a mixer and no fancy equipment. This recipe makes 30 mini muffins, so it's perfect if you're having people over for breakfast or brunch.

Simple Ingredients

• Rolled Oats: the secret ingredient! I am no stranger to adding oats or oat flour to my muffin recipes, it gives it a much more wholesome taste! Here though I'm toasting the oats before adding them to the muffins. Make sure you use rolled or whole oats.
• Bananas: you want ripe bananas with all the spots and freckles! I recently went to my local grocery store where they actually sold bags of super ripe bananas at a lower cost! Using brown bananas will make the muffins sweeter and will help amp up the banana flavor.
• Spices: using warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves is going to mingle with the sweetness of the bananas.
• Sour Cream: using sour cream in these banana bread muffins is going to make them extra moist and tender. No dry muffins here!

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350ºFahrenheit. Line a mini muffin pan with mini muffin liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl, mash the bananas until you almost have a banana puree. I like to use a potato masher to do this! Add the egg, melted butter, sour cream, vanilla extract, and light brown sugar. Whisk until combined. Because of the mashed banana it won't be totally smooth, but that's fine.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk the toasted oats with the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.

Step 3: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and use a rubber spatula to combine everything until there are no more streaks of flour left. As soon as it is just combined, stop mixing.

Step 4: Use a tablespoon or a small cookie scoop to scoop the muffin batter into the prepared muffin pan. You want to fill each one to the top. Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes. The muffins should be golden brown. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Expert Tips & Tricks

• I always recommend weighing your flour using a weighing scale! It is the most accurate way to bake and will make a big difference to the texture of your muffins. Adding too much flour (which is easy to do when using measuring cups) will lead to dry, stodgy muffins.
• Filling them to the top of the muffin liners will give you tall muffin tops.
• Using a small cookie scoop means you'll get the same amount of batter in each muffin liner!
• You'll want all the ingredients to be at room temperature before starting this recipe, so make sure the toasted oats and the melted butter have cooled down before starting.

Try these breakfast recipes next!