These soft baby blueberry muffins are naturally sweetened with banana and are a freezer friendly healthy snack perfect for little hands! They are egg free and can easily be made dairy free too.
Along with these no added sugar banana pear muffins, I have continued to bake these muffins on a regular basis over the past couple of years and they are always popular!
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Why we love this recipe
- Soft and fluffy muffins.
- Can easily be made vegan – just use a plant based milk instead of cows milk.
- They are sugar free muffins – the banana adds enough sweetness, so no sugar is needed.
- They freeze well – I often take as many as I need out of the freezer in the morning and they defrost by mid morning.
Ingredients Notes and substitutions
- Flour – this recipe uses a combination of plain flour and wholemeal flour. I have made the muffins with all plain flour and they taste delicious 🙂 I would advise against all wholemeal flour as it can make the muffins heavy and dry.
- Oats – I use quick cook oats in this recipe, they are smaller and blend into the batter to give a soft texture suitable for babies.
- Milk – If you ware wanting to make vegan or dairy free muffins, I find soy or almond milk works best.
- Oil – I use olive oil, as it is what I have to hand, and I like the savoury note it gives. Use vegetable, canola or avocado oil if you prefer a flavourless oil.
- Blueberries – Using frozen blueberries in these muffins means they keep their shape, and is a help when blueberries aren’t in season! If you don’t have any frozen ones, placing them in the freezer to cool when you begin this recipe will help, but if you forget, it’s not the end of the world!
- Bananas – not only acts as a replacement for an egg in these eggless blueberry muffins, but as a natural sweetener too. The riper the banana, the more sweet the muffins will be – and they will be more moist with a very ripe banana. I have found bananas speckled with brown spots to be the best as the muffins are still soft but a little more firm than using very ripe bananas:
How to make these muffins
- Combine plain and wholemeal flour with oats, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon.
- In another bowl mix the milk with olive oil and mashed bananas.
- Lightly stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with the blueberries, taking care not to overmix.
- Spoon into a mini muffin tin and bake until golden.
FAQ
Can I freeze baby blueberry muffins?
Yes! Cool completely, then store in a container in the freezer for up to 2 months. Take out as many as you need, and defrost at room temperature for an hour or so.
What’s the best way to store blueberry muffins?
If you are going to eat them in 3 days then store in an airtight container. If you don’t think you’ll eat them within 3 days then freeze them.
Can I make these mini muffins in a regular muffin tin?
Yes, you can. This recipe makes 8-10 regular size muffins. You will need to cook them for 5-10 minutes longer than mini muffins, depending on the ripeness of the banana you use.
My recipe tips:
- Preheat your oven and prepare your muffin tin before you start. Once the raising agents (baking powder and bicarbonate of soda) come into contact with the liquid (milk, oil, bananas) they begin to act and produce air bubbles. You want to be able to capture this by putting them in the oven as quickly as possible so the air bubbles get locked in place by the heat, resulting in light muffins.
- Do not overmix your batter. It will make the muffins tough. It is better to have a few small lumps of flour than to overmix!
- Check they are cooked by inserting a toothpick into the muffin. If it comes out clean, they are ready. If not, bake a little longer. NOTE: If you use very ripe bananas – by this I mean very brown skins and very soft bananas – they can look moist on a toothpick. In this case, I would suggest actually placing a blunt knife in a muffin – it will sacrifice one (still perfectly edible!) but this way you can see if you’ve hit a piece of ripe banana, or if the batter still needs to be cooked.
- If you use a very ripe banana the muffins can take a couple of minutes longer to cook than if your banana wasn’t as ripe.
- Cool the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out, as they are fragile when warm.
- If you use fresh blueberries, check the muffins after 17 minutes.
Storage
- Airtight container at room temperature: 3 days.
- Freeze: freeze for up to 2 months.
More baby led weaning recipes for you
This was originally posted in November 2018, it has since been updated with more information and clearer images to hep you make the best blueberry muffins. The recipe remains the same.
Baby Blueberry Muffins
Author: Robyn
These soft baby led weaning blueberry muffins are sugar free, naturally sweetened with banana. They are popular with toddlers too, and are freezer friendly!
Ingredients
- 1 c (135g) plain flour
- 1 tablespoon (30g) wholemeal flour
- ⅓ c (35g) oats quick cook oats are fine
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- Pinch cinnamon
- ½ c (125ml) milk or soy or almond milk for vegan/dairy free muffins
- ¼ c (60ml) olive oil
- 2 large bananas mashed
- ½ c (90g) frozen blueberries *
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200˚C/390˚F
- In a mixing bowl, combine the plain and wholemeal flours, oats, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and cinnamon.
- In another bowl mix the milk, olive oil and mashed bananas together.
- Lightly stir this mixture into the dry ingredients together with the frozen blueberries, taking care not to over mix (I’ve found it’s better to have a few lumps in the batter, otherwise the muffins can be tough).
- Take teaspoons of mixture and pop into a mini muffin tin.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes, until lightly golden and cooked through.
- Leave in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
- Keep in airtight container for 3 days.
- The muffins also freeze well and defrost quickly.
Video
Notes
Milk – soy or almond milk works best. If you aren’t vegan, then use cows milk.
Oil – I use olive oil, as I like the savoury note it gives to baking. Use vegetable, canola or avocado oil if you prefer a flavourless oil.
Blueberries – Using frozen blueberries in these muffins means they keep their shape, and is a help when blueberries aren’t in season! If you don’t have any frozen ones, placing them in the freezer to cool when you begin this recipe will help. If you forget, it’s not the end of the world, just use fresh blueberries! If you use fresh blueberries, check the muffins after 17 minutes.”
Bananas – The riper the banana, the more sweet the muffins will be – and they will be more moist with a very ripe banana. I have found bananas speckled with brown spots to be the best as the muffins are still soft but a little more firm than using very ripe bananas. If you have very brown bananas, this is still a great recipe for using them up, but the muffins won’t be quite as fluffy.
Preheat your oven and prepare your muffin tin before you start. Once the raising agents (baking powder and bicarbonate of soda) come into contact with the liquid (milk, oil, bananas) they begin to act and produce air bubbles. You want to be able to capture this by putting them in the oven as quickly as possible so the air bubbles get locked in place by the heat, resulting in light muffins.
Do not overmix your batter. It will make the muffins tough. It is better to have a few small lumps of flour than to overmix!
Check they are cooked by inserting a toothpick into the muffin. If it comes out clean, they are ready. If not, bake a little longer. NOTE: If you use very ripe bananas – by this I mean very brown skins and very soft bananas – they can look moist on a toothpick. In this case, I would suggest actually placing a blunt knife in a muffin – it will sacrifice one (still perfectly edible!) but this way you can see if you’ve hit a piece of ripe banana, or if the batter still needs to be cooked.
If you use a very ripe banana the muffins can take a couple of minutes longer to cook than if your banana wasn’t as ripe.
Cool the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out, as they are fragile when warm.
This recipe makes 24 mini muffins. For regular size muffins, cook for another 5-10 minutes, depending on ripeness of banana. This recipe makes 8-10 regular muffins.
Nutrition
Calories: 66kcalCarbohydrates: 9gProtein: 1gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 61mgPotassium: 61mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 27IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 29mgIron: 1mg
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Jackie says
These were a hit! We will definitely be making this again. My 3.5yo and I had fun in the kitchen with this recipe and the 1yo enjoys having them, too–as do I!
Robyn says
Love to hear that your 3.5yo had fun making the muffins! And that your 1yo loves eating them 😉
Cat says
These were so great! Thank you for sharing, it’s tough finding baby muffin recipes that don’t include added sugars!
I didn’t even know I had run out of blueberries in my freezer so just had banana muffins and they were still lovely. I used whole grain spelt flour for the total flour amount and coconut oil instead of olive oil. I also added a touch of vanilla to the wet ingredient mixture. The foundation of this recipe is foolproof, I will use again and again.