I originally came up with the recipe for these sugar free muffins as a baby led weaning banana muffin recipe, when I was looking for portable blw snacks. (Hence the recipe makes 24 mini muffins rather than larger ones.) Since sharing them, these banana and pear muffins have been the most popular blw recipes on the blog, and for good reason.
They are so easy to make, which is pretty important when you have one hand or making them during nap time! Just two bowls: one for the dry ingredients, and one for the wet (including the bananas and grated pear.)
I would say these easy banana muffins are about as healthy as banana muffins can get:
- They’re naturally sweetened with banana and pear rather than loaded with refined sugar.
- Note: The riper the bananas are, the sweeter the muffins will be.
- They are made with olive oil, rather than using butter or margarine, which makes the muffins tender. You can’t taste the olive oil.
Muffins make such a great portable snack, and I continue to make them a lot, along with these other baby led weaning snacks that have since turned into favourite kid snacks: Vegan Blueberry Muffins, no added sugar Pear Flapjack and nut free Spinach pesto pinwheels
Tips to make these healthy banana muffins the best they can be:
- Mash the bananas well, especially if making mini banana muffins, as the chunks of banana can seem quite squishy and not popular with babies and toddlers that have texture issues.
- Stir the baking powder and bicarb of soda into the flour well. I didn’t do this once and the bicarb stuck in clumps and there were brown bitter clumps in the muffins.
- Once you add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, DON’T overmix. This can make the muffins heavy. It is best to leave a few small lumps of unmixed flour.
Do these sugar free banana muffins freeze?
Yes, they do. Make sure they are cold, then wrap well and put in a container or bag. Take out as many as you like to defrost. They will keep up to 6 weeks, after that they can become dry.
Substitutes:
Pear: use a grated apple instead.
Mixed Spice: Use the same amount of ground cinnamon (You can also leave out the spices altogether)
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Banana Pear Muffins
Author: Robyn
Ingredients
- 90 g wholemeal plain flour
- 50 g plain flour
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon bicarb of soda
- 2 medium to large very ripe bananas mashed
- 1 egg beaten
- 70 ml olive oil
- 1 medium ripe pear or apple, peeled
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170˚C/340˚F
- Mix the flours, mixed spice, baking powder and bicarb together in a large bowl.
- In another bowl, mix the mashed bananas with the egg and olive oil. Finely grate the pear (or apple) straight into the egg mixture, to capture any juice that comes from grating the fruit.
- Lightly mix the wet and dry ingredients together – if you mix too much it can make the muffins heavy.
- Spoon into a mini muffin tray – about 1 heaped teaspoon mixture per muffin (they should be quite full).
- Bake for 15 minutes, until golden and springy to touch.
- Leave in tin a couple of minutes then move to wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
HAVE YOU MADE THIS RECIPE?
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Or just leave a comment below!
Helen Blacker says
can I use a ripe and soft pear in this? not sure how well it will grate up
Robyn says
Hi Helen, yes you can use a ripe, soft pear. Just keep in mind that it will be extra juicy so can make the batter a little wetter. To compensate I’d suggest using a banana that isn’t super ripe – so just a spotty skin. You could very chop the pear very if you found it hard to grate. Hope this helps. Robyn
Helen Blacker says
well i gave them a go today and they turned out well, thank you!
Robyn says
That’s great to hear! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Cathy says
I want to try this recipe. Just wondering why you need plain flour and wholemeal flour. I’ve never used wholemeal flour – does it have a different texture?
Robyn says
Hi Cathy, I use a mixture of wholemeal flour and plain flour because wholemeal flour contains more fibre than plain flour, however used alone it would create a heavy and dense muffin. Combining it with plain flour helps keep the texture of the muffins light. Wholemeal flour also adds a slightly nutty flavour. However if you don’t want to use it, just use all plain flour. Hope this helps! Robyn
Janine Dell says
I’m going to make these today. Iv got canned pear. Do you think this would work.
Robyn says
Hi Janine, if you want to use canned pears I recommend draining them well to avoid making the batter too wet. Hope this helps! Robyn
Claire Fong says
These are delicious! Once baked, can I leave them in an airtight container in the counter or should I store them in the fridge?
Robyn says
So happy to hear that Claire! They will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of days, however if it is summer or warm or humid where you are I would store them in the fridge once cool.
Haley says
These were great. I added 1/4 tsp of salt and used half avocado oil half melted coconut oil because that’s what I had on hand. I like a little sweetness so I added some chopped dates too.
Robyn says
Love the sound of those additions Haley! Glad to hear you enjoyed the muffins!
Ro says
Thank you for this recipe!
I added an extra pear and it was so soft and delicious! Kids loved it! Will do a double batch next time as it disappeared as soon as it was cool enough to eat!
Jordan Butterfield says
I literally make these every week to put in my toddler’s lunch box. I’ve made them substituting the pear/apple with shredded carrot, pumpkin purée, and lemon zest/juice and poppy seeds and they’ve come out great every time. Also added some wild blueberries (the small ones) to the batter and they held up perfectly. It’s so light and naturally sweet. Thank you!
Robyn says
I’m so happy to hear you love these muffins Jordan 🙂 I love the sound of the different ingredients you’ve used too!
Helen Tonkinson says
Delicious – I didn’t have a muffin pan to make individual ones so baked it a little longer in a loaf tin – it worked a treat
Robyn says
Thanks Helen 🙂 what a great idea to bake it in a loaf tin!
AJ says
I followed the recipe exactly as written. I ended up using small loaf molds (there was enough batter for 2). I steamed this bread for 40 mins since I don’t have an oven–it came out delicious and my daughter loved it! Thank you!
Robyn says
That’s great you can steam the batter rather than bake it – thanks for letting me know! Robyn
Alex says
These are fantastic – we love them for an easy and healthy breakfast!
Robyn says
They are delicious for breakfast – and portable too for those breakfasts on the run!
Jaimie says
These look divine! Ive never thought to add pear to banana bread, cake or muffins… what a great idea!
Robyn says
Thanks Jaimie, it adds a lovely sweetness without adding sugar 🙂