Banana Spice Muffins ~ these light and fluffy muffins are loaded with banana, warm spices, and lots of oats for a hearty start to the day.
I love this particular mix of spices. I’ve used cardamom where you’d usually find cinnamon, and it makes all the difference. The first bite won’t catapult you right back to the old Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, and that’s a good thing. The aroma is more exotic and sophisticated. Grate the nutmeg over the batter with a micro-plane; you won’t believe the difference it makes. In fact I’m in the process of converting a lot of my spices over to fresh ground….more on that in a later post.
These are light, fluffy and moist. The holy trinity of muffins, as far as I’m concerned. They have a fall-apart texture which I love; the oat flour and oat bran help with that. And the crumble topping gives the whole thing some added crunch and sweetness.
Don’t let the long list of ingredients throw you, it’s mostly spices and basic stuff. You can substitute plain flour for the oat flour, if you must, but I highly recommend keeping some around for baking. It really creates the most wonderful texture. I like to throw in a little oat bran or wheat bran into my muffins whenever I can, too, not only for the health factor, but because I think it makes them lighter.
If you search banana on this blog you’ll find lots of other inspiration for those over ripe specimens on your counter. Some of my favorites are my Banana Poppy Seed Cake with Lemon Buttercream, and my  Better than Starbucks Banana Bread. But I also love Banana Buttermilk Pancakes, and I often sneak banana into my favorite Bran Muffins.
My policy is to eat one hot from the oven.
You only live once.
Note: 15 seconds in the microwave will bring leftover muffins back to that fresh out of the oven state.
Banana Spice Muffins
Ingredients
dry ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 1/2 cup oat bran
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp (heaping) cardamom
- 1/4 tsp (heaping) ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp (heaping) allspice
- 1/4 tsp (heaping) ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
crumble topping
- 1/4 cup oat flour
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar
- 3 Tbsp rolled oats
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 Tbsp butter, or coconut oil
wet ingredients
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup mashed banana, about 2 small
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Set oven to 375°F.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.
- Make the crumble by using your fingertips to combine the flour, sugar, oats, nuts and butter in a small bowl until it resembles coarse crumb. Set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, banana, buttermilk and nuts. Mix thoroughly to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix together just until blended.
- Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or use liners. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Top with the crumb topping and bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool on a rack.
I made this recipe today. These muffins are excellent. It took exactly 20 minutes and they came out perfect, light, moist, warm.
Can I just pulverize some old fashioned rolled oat for the oat flour? Also, the third ingredient is oat bran, isn’t it?
Yes, you can, that should work fine, and yes, it’s oat bran 🙂
fact: all muffins should involve a streusel of some sort. it makes up for the lack of a frosting. 🙂
These are beautiful and I adore fresh nutmeg. My sister started me grinding my own several years ago and there is no comparison for fresh in sauces especially!
Welcome home! These muffins look delicious. Banana is so delicious and moist when baked up in muffins or cakes. I really enjoy baking with them.
Lovely, these sounds great. I just made a batch of caraway and cardamom muffins, oh boy I though they might be odd but the flavours are wonderful.
Oh, the streusel… They look just gorgeous!
I love banana muffins and adding the streusel topping makes them perfect. Warm with a little pat of butter is my favorite way to enjoy them.
Great policy – always eat one while you can get it hot! These look homey, and satisfying and beautiful of course! I never knew people could not eat bananas. Glad you were able to find a cure!
I agree that light, fluffy and moist IS the holy trinity of muffins – and so is that streusel topping — I could Just eat those pebbles of glory 🙂
And oat flour – that’s whole rolled oats into my Vitamix in 2.3 seconds. Love using it for moisture!