Whole Wheat Banana Maple Muffins

22 CommentsWednesday • June 2, 2010 • by Ari

This recipe for Whole Wheat Banana Maple Muffins was brought about by two things: my love for baked goods with coffee in the morning, and my desire to lose the remainder of my baby weight. Two seemingly conflicting desires – unless you test tons of healthy recipes, then scrap them all and come up with your own recipe.

What kinds of recipes did I try? Recipes for bland bran muffins that were described as “too good to be true” in the recipe intro. Quinoa muffins, which weren’t half bad but didn’t impress me either. Plain whole wheat muffins that were just “eh.”

I was after was a healthy muffin recipe that did not taste healthy. Know what I mean? I wanted something sinful without the sin. And though I could have cheated by making one of those deliciously sugar-laden muffin recipes that are so easy to come by, part of my weight loss plan involves limiting myself to one decadent sweet-tooth adventure a month. In May I used my allotment on a chocolate chip cookie affogato (so worth it). This month I’m saving up for a devils food cake with peanut butter frosting, which I plan to make for the hubs on Father’s Day.

I did allow myself one loop-hole in this plan: I can bake to my heart’s content so long as what I’m making is healthy and low calorie. Needless to say, it has to be scrumptious too or why bother?

So for the past several days I’ve been on a quest. A quest for a healthy recipe that is high in flavor and produces moist muffins with just the right amount of bite.

I found it.

To create this recipe I took a basic whole wheat muffin recipe and swapped melted butter for a reduced amount of olive oil. I also replaced a small amount of the whole wheat flour with a combination of all-purpose flour and toasted wheat germ. Finally, I replaced white sugar with maple syrup and mashed bananas, both of which added sweetness and moisture. Oh, and I added vanilla and cinnamon, both of which which pair very nicely with banana and maple. Yum.

I made the recipe twice before the muffins came out just right, all puffy and full of flavor – yet with healthy fats from olive oil only 232 calories per muffin. I know because I plugged all the ingredients into my Lose It! iPhone app and calculated the nutritional value of each muffin. There really is an app for everything.

Hope you’re having a great week! Add some muffins in there to make it even better.

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