Soft and sweet miniature banana, peanut butter, and chocolate chip muffins make the perfect afternoon snack. These tiny sweet treats are super simple to make, and healthy too!
My afternoon pre-gym snacks have been a little lacklustre lately: carrot sticks, celery sticks, plain rice thins – not exactly the sort of power snack that inspires a powerful workout after riding a desk all day. The key to a successful afternoon snack I feel is a combination of a few elements: something slightly sweet (to get over that 3pm slump); something healthy (to support my health goals); and something light but still filling (to stop the tummy rumbles but not weigh me down).
These adorable little bites contain all of my favourite pre-run nibbles: crunchy creamy peanut butter, sweet ripe bananas, and oh-so-nice milk chocolate chips. Yes, chocolate chips are a perfectly acceptable pre-run nibble on occasion. And when paired with protein and healthy fat packed peanut butter and complex carbohydrate containing banana in my mini muffins they are just the cherry on-top of a healthy little nibble. You can leave them out of course, at your own risk….
My Banana, Peanut Butter, and Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins are super quick to make too. I whipped these up on a busy Tuesday night so that I would have running fuel for the rest of the week. They also make a great quick and easy breakfast. Simpy grab a few mini muffins and some yoghurt or fruit and you have a great on-the-go breakfast. If you are making these for kids who go to a no-nut policy school you can simply substitute the peanut butter for sunflower seed butter, or use two extra tablespoons of yoghurt instead.
Get out that mixing bowl and spoon tonight – you are only twenty minutes away from a sweet healthy treat for your lunchbox tomorrow!
Banana, Peanut Butter, and Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins
Gluten Free | Makes about 24 mini muffins | Best eaten within two days | Freeze leftovers tightly wrapped in plastic wrap for up to two months
Ingredients
- 1 large banana, well mashed
- 1/3 cup Greek yoghurt (or plain, natural yoghurt)
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon rice bran oil (or other flavourless vegetable oil)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sorghum flour
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and spray a 24-hole mini muffin baking tin with baking oil.
- In a medium mixing bowl beat together mashed banana, yoghurt, egg, oil, vanilla extract, peanut butter, and brown sugar until smooth.
- In a small bowl whisk together sorghum flour, brown rice flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Add chocolate chips (reserve a few for dotting onto the top if you’d like) and stir until distributed through batter.
- Divide batter between holes of mini muffin tin. Fill only to 2/3 of the way to avoid the muffins spilling over the top.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched.
- Cool for 5 minutes in the tin and then tip out to cool completely.
