Vegan Banana Muffins

For a person who hates bananas I sure have a lot of recipes for baked banana goods. This is mainly because I hate the smell of overripe bananas as much as I hate eating them, so when there are bananas going brown on the counter, I have to turn them into bread or muffins to get rid of them. Our vegan grocery shopping experiment in 2020 has resulted in a lack of eggs in the house, so after some Googling I found a recipe that I had most of the ingredients for, so kept tweaking it to work with the quarantine cupboard. A approved of the taste so I think it was successful!

Vegan Banana Muffins
Adapted from The Worktop

Ingredients

4 medium ripe bananas - mashed
1/2 cup water (or milk alternative)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cups white flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, but any vinegar/lemon juice should be fine.)

For topping

1 tablespoon quick cooking oats
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line or lightly grease a standard 12-hole muffin tin.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, water, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and brown sugar. You can mix this by hand, or use a hand mixer on low speed. I usually use a hand mixer since I find that it quickly will mash/puree a ripe banana.
3. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together until just combined. Stir in the vinegar.
5. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups. Top the muffins with the oats (and turbinado sugar if using).
6. Bake muffins, rotating pan halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 25–30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let muffins cool in pan 5 minutes. Transfer muffins onto a rack and let cool completely.