Vegan Chocolate and Banana Oat Muffins

This vegan chocolate and banana oat muffins recipe was donated to me by the wonderful Katie of Little Green Duck. Not taking long to whip up and using up those bananas that have been sitting for a while – they taste fabulous and are a great way to start the day.

I seem to be posting a lot of recipes at the moment that can double as breakfast and dessert, because who doesn’t love something that goes as well with custard or ice cream as it does with your morning cereal? The great thing about a lot of my vegan recipes is that they’re also refined sugar-free, which means they can also be guilt-free at any time of day and enjoyed by the whole family.

These vegan chocolate and banana oat muffins were a bit of an experiment at first, but they turned out really gooey and delicious so I just had to share the recipe. Please send me pictures of yours if you make these, I’d love to feature them on my Instagram feed.

These freeze really well so you can pop some in the freezer too, if they last that long!

Makes 12 Muffins

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 Tbsp milled flaxseed

1 tsp ground cinnamon or mixed spice

1 1/2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda

70g oats plus an extra handful for sprinkling.

3 ripe bananas, well mashed.

1 Tsp vanilla essence

30ml coconut oil or vegetable oil (I used rapeseed)

150ml non-dairy milk alternative (I used Oatly as usual but soya, almond or pretty much anything else should work well) – if you want to make them extra chocolately use non-dairy chocolate milk, YUM.

1 Tbsp lemon juice

3 Tbsp maple syrup

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (180 if using a fan oven/gas mark 6. Line your 12 hole muffin tin with cases or, if like me you don’t have any cases, just use cut-out squares of greaseproof paper (this makes them look all rustic and Hampstead bakery-esque too).
2. Add the lemon juice to the milk and set aside.
3. Mix together the banana, vanilla essence, oil and maple syrup in a blender (you can do it by hand if you’d prefer).
4. Add the dry ingredients (flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder, cinnamon, flaxseed and oats) to the blender or bowl, then mix everything together, adding a little of the milk and lemon juice mix at a time to create a smooth batter.
5. Spoon the batter evenly into the cases or greaseproof paper and sprinkle each of them with a few of the extra oats.
6. Bake in the oven for 25 mins, until risen and a metal skewer comes out clean.