Vegan Banana/Date Muffins

Yesterday, I spent some of my day doing some food prep for the week.  It’s nice to have some food pre-made so that dinner comes together faster.  It’s also a nice treat to have something for breakfast during the week other than oatmeal or pb&j toast.  Nothing is wrong with either of those foods, but doesn’t it feel decadent to have muffins during the week?  An extra special breakfast on Monday morning never hurt anybody.  With some bananas on their last legs, it was a good time to make these.  Also, I’ve been wanting to make date paste and try baking with it.  I’ll refer you again to Gena and her tutorial on date paste.  Here’s my take on baking with date paste.

Vegan Banana/Date Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups mashed banana
• 1/3 cup extra virgin coconut oil
• 2/3 cup date paste
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed + 6 tablespoons warm water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Make flax eggs: combine ground flax and water and stir.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes.

3.  Combine mashed bananas, coconut oil, date paste, and almond milk.  Mix until well incorporated.  Add vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and the flax eggs.  Mix until combined.

4.  In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients and stir.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just incorporated.  No over mixing!

5.  Line a muffin tin with muffin papers or spray with non-stick spray.  Divide the batter evenly amongst the twelve sections.  Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I was pretty pleased with these muffins.  The date paste adds the perfect touch of sweetness to these muffins without overwhelming the flavor.  In other words, they still taste like banana muffins.  The warm cinnamon and nutmeg also compliment the dates and bananas nicely.   I had two for breakfast, topped with peanut butter and I almost forgot it was Monday this morning.  Not.  They are tasty muffins though.