Super healthy banana oatmeal muffins are naturally gluten free and so simple to make. They're made with no butter, no oil and no refined sugar. And you make the batter in the blender!
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What's special about these banana oatmeal muffins
When my children were small, it was always really important to me that they have a healthy and hearty breakfast. Not everyone is hungry first thing in the morning, but these super healthy banana oatmeal muffins were beloved by all 3 of my children, and were easy for little hands to eat at the bus stop.
They freeze beautifully, and they're ridiculously easy to make with super basic pantry ingredients, including bananas, sour cream, eggs, coconut sugar, and oats. Add in some salt and some leaveners (baking powder and baking soda), and you have a high-rising, tender and hearty muffin that is truly satisfying.
I typically like to make the batter for these muffins in the blender, as it's the only way to make a smooth batter. And a smooth batter leads to a smooth muffin, but if you don't have a blender, you can still make them as long as you have oat flour on hand.
A healthy, hearty muffin for breakfast
Other than a small handful of chocolate chips (which you could easily replace with much more virtuous chopped nuts of nearly any kind), these muffins are just.so.good.for.you. And because they're packed with whole grains, they're really satisfying.
These banana oatmeal muffins also have very little sugar. There's just 1/2 cup of coconut palm sugar in all 12 muffins. There isn't even much fat. Just that added by the sour cream or yogurt and the egg yolks—no butter or oil.
But they're still moist, tender and just flat out delicious. Like a hearty gluten free banana bread, but with the batter made in the blender! For a more traditional take, try our classic gluten-free banana muffins, made with an all purpose gluten free flour blend, instead of oats.
How to make banana oatmeal muffins
These so-called “blender muffins” are made by placing all of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips in a blender or food processor, and pulsing until smooth.
About the size of your blender or food processor.
The blender I use most often has only a 24 ounce capacity. That isn't large enough to make the batter for these muffins in one batch.
When I'm using a blender of that size, I divide all of the ingredients by half, and make in two batches, but bake them both at the same time in the same muffin tin. If you'd prefer, you can blend the muffins in 2 batches and bake them 6 at a time.
If you don't have a 6-cup muffin tin, you can use a 12-cup muffin tin and fill the empty muffin wells with water to ensure even baking. The baking time is the same whether you're making 12 muffins or 6 muffins in the oven at a time.
- In the bowl of your blender or food processor, place peeled and chopped bananas, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, coconut palm sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. It's important to add the ingredients in this order to make it as easy as possible for your blender to work.
- Turn your machine on high speed and blend or process the ingredients until well-blended. Get the batter as smooth as possible, but avoid blending until the machine begins to overheat, which will create a lumpy, gooey batter that makes less tender muffins.
- Add about 3 ounces chocolate chips to the batter, and mix by hand until evenly distributed throughout the batter. You can actually add up to 5 ounces of chocolate chips for slightly larger muffins.
- Divide the batter evenly among greased and/or lined wells of a standard 12-cup muffin tin. The wells should be about 3/4 of the way full, but of course that will depend on the size of the wells in your muffin tin.
- Sprinkle the tops of the muffins evenly with at least 1 more ounce of chocolate chips. Press them down a little bit with your fingertips to ensure that the chips rise along with the batter in the wells, rather than being lifted off as the muffins grow larger.
- Place the muffin tin in the center of a 350°F oven and bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.
- Let the muffins cool for about 10 minutes in the muffin tin, and then carefully remove them and transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
How to make banana oatmeal muffins without a blender
In case you don't have a blender, you can use a mini food processor to grind the oats into a flour and to blend the sugar and bananas, and then simply mix the rest of the batter by hand with a bowl and spoon.
It's not a perfect solution, but the muffins are still absolutely delicious, hearty and healthy as ever. There are so many other gluten free breakfast ideas here on the blog, and most of them don't require any sort of blender or food processor.
If you don't have a blender or a food processor, you will need to replace 225 grams of oat flour in place of rolled oats. You will then have to mash the bananas with the beaten eggs as smoothly as possible, and then mix all of the ingredients together by hand in a large mixing bowl.
If you grind your own oat flour, be sure to grind it as finely as possible or the muffins will be a bit grainy. Baking with oat flour that hasn't been ground very finely is not the same issue that baking with gritty rice flour is, so it's not a big problem.
Banana oatmeal muffins ingredients and substitution suggestions
Sour cream
If you don't have sour cream on hand, you can still make these muffins. Just try plain, Greek-style yogurt. It must be Greek-style or you'll be adding too much moisture and the recipe won't work properly.
Dairy free banana oat muffins
The only dairy in this recipe as written is sour cream. If you'd like to make these muffins dairy free, try using plain dairy free Greek-style yogurt in its place. Be sure you're not using anything fat free or the muffins may be tough.
Oat-free banana oatmeal muffins
In place of the oats, since they're blended here, try using quinoa flakes and grind them into a powder as best you can. For more information, please visit our post about a substitute for oats.
FAQs
Yes! If you don't have a blender, you can use a food processor. If you don't have either one, as long as you can replace the oats with oat flour, you can still make these muffins. Just whisk together the oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and coconut sugar in a mixing bowl. In a separate, smaller bowl, peel and mash the bananas with the sour cream and beaten eggs. Add the banana mixture to the oat flour mixture, and mix to combine. Follow the recipe instructions as written starting on step 4.
Oatmeal tends to make baked goods tough if you overmix the batter. Be sure to pulse the muffin batter just until it's blended, and don't keep blending or processing past that point.
Yes! Try replacing the chips with raisins, or your favorite dried fruit, cut into small pieces. You can leave the chips out entirely, but your muffins will be shorter.
Did you grease the wells of the muffin tin and/or the cupcake liners with cooking oil spray before baking? Otherwise, muffins tend to stick after baking.
When baked goods rise in the oven and then fall as they cool, they are usually underbaked in the center. That is often due to a too-hot oven, that bakes the outside of baked goods quickly, and before the center has had a chance to bake all the way through. As steam escapes, the muffins fall.
Yes! You can replace palm sugar with an equal amount, by weight, of brown sugar.
Yes! You'll need to defrost them, and they'll be quite slimy when you do, but the muffins won't mind at all. Just defrost either in the refrigerator overnight (be sure they're in a bowl or sealed container, as they'll leak liquid as they defrost) or in the microwave at low enough power that they don't heat much (depending on your microwave's total power, I'd defrost at 40% or 400 watts (lower if your microwave is more powerful than that) until soft). Then peel, weigh (include the liquid from the defrosted bananas), and blend.
Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Equipment
- Blender or food processor see recipe notes for alternative
Ingredients
- 2 ½ (250 g) peeled medium ripe bananas roughly chopped
- ½ cup (114 g) sour cream at room temperature
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup (80 g) coconut palm sugar (or the same amount of light brown sugar, by weight)
- 2 ¼ cups (225 g) old fashioned rolled oats (certified GF if necessary)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease or line the wells of a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.
- In a blender or food processor (See Recipe Notes; it may be necessary to blend the batter in two equal parts), place the bananas, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Pulse or blend on high speed until well-blended. (See Recipe Notes)
- Add about 3/4 of the chocolate chips to the batter, and mix by hand until evenly distributed throughout.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared wells of the muffin tin.
- Shake the tin back and forth to distribute the batter into an even layer in each well.
- Sprinkle the tops evenly with the remaining chips.
- Place the muffin tin in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Serve immediately or wrap tightly in freezer-safe wrap and freeze. Defrost at room temperature before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
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Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
Marissa says
I’ve probably made these once a week since the recipe was published. I’m obsessed!
Nicole Hunn says
That’s awesome, Marissa! Thanks for sharing that. A true favorite!
Lucy says
There is no oil if any sort in this recipe, a good chunk of muffins got stuck to the paper cup, and that’s quite a waste. If I were to add some butter or olive oil to the recipe, how much do you recommend?
Nicole Hunn says
No, there’s nothing missing from the recipe, Lucy. It sounds like you needed to grease your muffin liners. If they’re not “greaseproof,” they will stick, and unfortunately most liners aren’t greaseproof.
Cindy says
When you say to weigh out your egg and it exceeds the 100 gm wt, do you just remove the white part or beat the egg and remove the mixed version to get your wr?
Nicole Hunn says
Generally, beat the egg and remove the excess, Cindy. Unless it’s a very egg-heavy recipe, I wouldn’t worry too much about a few grams here or there, though. The weight is something I provide because over the years many readers have told me that they use eggs from a farm and they don’t come in standard sizes.
Natalie says
These came out perfectly! Thanks, Nicole!
Nicole Hunn says
You’re very welcome, Natalie! So glad you enjoyed the muffins.
Ganga says
This recipe looks great. Is there any substitute for sour cream as I never buy it? Thank you
Nicole Hunn says
Please see the ingredients and substitutions section of the text of the post under the heading “Sour cream.”
Ganga says
Thank you. Would coconut milk work?
Also thank you for all the lovely recipes. I am an American living for a long time in England and look forward to your recipes!!
Nicole Hunn says
No, I’m afraid coconut milk is not an appropriate substitute for sour cream. I highly suggest you use sour cream or one of my recommended substitutes. And thanks for the kind words!
Linda says
Since bananas are sweet, is the sugar needed?
Nicole Hunn says
Yes, Linda, sugar isn’t just a sweetener, it’s also a tenderizer. You can’t leave out or eliminate all sugar and have the muffins turn out as intended.
Mary says
May I substitute GF instant oatmeal rather than GF old fashioned oats?
Nicole Hunn says
No, I wouldn’t recommend that, Mary, Instant oatmeal has many other ingredients in it, and this recipe is developed to be made with a single ingredient, oats.
Emily says
I have saved ripe bananas in the freezer for smoothies. Would these work for the muffins if I sliced them in 1/2″ slices? If so, should I defrost them first? Thinking that weighing them frozen might throw off the quantity. Thank you
Nicole Hunn says
Hi, Emily, Yes, they would definitely work. Yes, you’ll definitely have to defrost them first, but there’s no need to slice them. The reason to slice them is to make it easier to blend with the other ingredients. You won’t weigh them frozen because you’ll have to weigh them without the peels, assuming you’ve frozen them that way, as the peels won’t come off until they’re defrosted. Otherwise the weight is the same. I just added an FAQ about frozen bananas, actually, since it’s a common question, so please see the FAQs section of the post if you’d like some advice on defrosting them. I hope that helps!