Banana Oat Muffins

What do you do when you have a few very-ripe bananas that are on the verge of becoming compost?  You find recipes to make that use these bananas.  Banana bread came to mind but I've been trying to move away from so much bread lately.  Thus, I found the recipe I made the other day (Layered Chocolate Banana Pudding Pie) and this one here for the banana oat muffins.

 It was the perfect thing to make on a weekend morning when I didn't have too much time to bake.  They're yummy and moist.  I would definitely make these again!

BANANA OAT MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour 

3/4 cup whole wheat flour 

1 cup rolled oats 

1/2 cup sugar 

2 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt 

1 egg 

3/4 cup milk 

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup mashed bananas

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the flours, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the egg. Add the milk, oil and vanilla to the egg and stir everything together. Add mashed banana to the wet mixture and combine. Slowly add the dry flour mixture to the banana mixture. Stir until just combined. Divide the batter into 12 lined muffin cups. Bake muffins for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.*

*Please see personal notes below about baking temp & time

PERSONAL NOTES:

*I reduced the baking heat to 375 and baked for about 15-17 minutes.  Even then, I discovered that the muffins were cooked a little bit more than I would have liked.  In the future, I'll reduce the heat further to 350 and check at 15 minutes to see how it's faring.  Baking for 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees is just too much.

Overall, this was an easy recipe to follow.  It's actually one of the reasons I like making muffins.  They're quick and simple. 

Substitutions:  I used applesauce for the oil, Egg Beaters for the egg and skim milk for the milk.  Let me tell you, I always give fresh muffins to my husband and he loves them; he never knows that I make the subsititutions.  I think it's funny.  But really, I think it's a smart way to lighten the recipe and still be able to enjoy a yummy treat.