Healthy Banana Bran Muffins – Eat Yourself Skinny

These Healthy Banana Bran Muffins are moist, fluffy, and made healthier with wholesome oat bran cereal, bananas and zero butter or added sugar. Delicious quick on-the-go morning breakfast!

Is there anything better than warm, cozy banana bread?? Well this wholesome banana bran muffin recipe really hits the spot! Moist, fluffy, and the perfect easy breakfast. Made healthier with nutritious oat bran cereal, oat flour and naturally sweetened with banana, cane sugar and maple syrup. Next time, I plan to mix in some chocolate chips or chopped nuts into these moist banana bran muffins for even more flavor and texture. I am certain the whole family will love these!

Why You’ll Love These

• These healthy banana bran muffins are moist, naturally sweetened and the perfect make ahead healthy breakfast or snack!
• This is a great recipe to use up those spotty bananas sitting in your kitchen.
• Wholesome snack and good source of dietary fiber that your kids will love.
• I like to make them in batches for meal prep and freeze for school lunches or easy snacks.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• bananas – make sure to use overripe bananas to get the most natural sweetness out of them. Perfect way to use up those bananas in your kitchen!
• eggs – gives these muffins their structure and height.
• coconut oil – I used a little bit of melted coconut oil to help keep these muffins moist. If you don’t have coconut oil, feel free to use Greek yogurt or unsweetened applesauce.
• oat flour – this helps make the muffins light and fluffy and pairs perfectly with the oat bran. If you don’t have oat flour, you can easily make your own (see notes below). You could also use whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour.
• oat bran – oat bran adds lots of fiber and protein to these muffins along with a nice oaty taste and texture. You could also use wheat bran for whole grain muffins.
• baking soda – this acts as a leavening agent to help these muffins rise.
• milk – you’ll need 1/4 cup of milk and any type of milk will work in this banana muffin recipe.
• sweetener – I used a combination of maple syrup and cane sugar to naturally sweeten the muffins without using refined sugar. You could also use honey, white sugar or brown sugar.
• vanilla – you’ll need one teaspoon vanilla extract to give these muffins a boost of flavor!
• cinnamon + salt – boosts of flavor. You could also add a little nutmeg or allspice for even more warm flavors.

How to Make Healthy Bran Muffins

1. Preheat oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and spray a muffin pan with nonstick spray or use cupcake liners.
2. Mash bananas. Using a fork or potato masher, mash the bananas in a medium bowl until you get the desired consistency.
3. Mix ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oat flour, oat bran, cane sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, then set aside flour mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, maple syrup, mashed bananas, milk, melted coconut oil, and vanilla, mixing until all combined.
4. Make the batter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined. Be careful not to over-mix the batter. This is when you can fold in any mix-ins you’d like such as chocolate chips or chopped nuts into the wet mixture. 
5. Prepare muffin tins. Generously coat a muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray (or use paper liners) and divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin cups. Make sure to fill each cup almost all the way full. 
6. Bake the muffins. Bake muffins in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.

How to Make Oat Flour

To make your own oat flour, take rolled oats (or instant oats) and blend them in your food processor or blender for about 60 seconds. They will resemble a fine, powdery flour which is what we want! You can also buy your own oat flour at the grocery store, but this method saves money and the flour will last up to three months in your pantry. The ratio for oat flour is one cup of oats = one cup of oat flour, so it’s pretty easy to measure out.

Variations and Substitutions

• Make sure to use over-ripe bananas with brown spots for the sweetest flavor!
• Don’t over mix the batter. This results in a super dense, dry muffin which we don’t want.  We are going for fluffy and soft!
• Feel free to sub the oat flour with whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour. I don’t recommend using almond flour or coconut flour in this recipe. Everyone has different preferences.
• You can easily swap out the melted coconut oil for olive oil, unsweetened applesauce or plain Greek yogurt in this healthy bran muffin recipe. You could also add in extra mashed banana.
• Mix in other fun additions like chopped walnuts or pecans, raisins, chocolate chips, cacao nibs, coconut flakes, chia seeds, dried fruit or fresh berries on top of each muffin.
• For chocolate banana bran muffins, simply add in 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder and only use 1 cup of oat flour.

Prepping and Storage

To Store: You can keep these banana muffins stored in a sealed, airtight container or wrapped in aluminum foil on the counter at room temp for up to 3 to 4 days, but make sure to refrigerate after that to keep them longer.  These muffins will last up to a week in the fridge in a sealed container.

To Freeze: These healthy muffins freeze really well too!  You can either wrap the muffins individually in plastic wrap or store them all together in a freezer bag.  When ready to eat, just pop them in the microwave for 30 to 40 seconds or simply thaw out at room temperature for a nutritious breakfast.  These will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months!

More Muffin Recipes

More Banana Recipes

Hope you all enjoy this nutritious fiber-rich muffin recipe! If you love this as much as we do, please leave me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram using the hashtag #eatyourselfskinny! I love seeing all your delicious recreations!