Egg-free Banana Muffins

Trying to eat healthily is just not in my nature.  By “healthily”, I just mean cutting down on sugary snacks (biscuits and CHOCOLATE!).  I manage to last about 3 to 4 days at the most without something sweet.  However, by the sugarless 4^th day, every hair follicle on my body is screaming out for sugar!

So, I decided to make some semi-healthy low-sugar banana muffins…with chocolate chips and a sugary crumble topping!  I suppose they’re not that low in sugar as there’s extra sugar in the crumble topping (I’m not counting the chocolate – it was dark chocolate!).  Well, the ‘good intentions’ were there anyway.

These muffins are not the prettiest, but they were very moist with a delicious crunch from the crumble topping.  They managed to satisfy my sugar cravings…for a day. 

Also, as no eggs were harmed in their making, the muffins are also good for people with egg-allergies!  This recipe was also handy in using up the extra apple sauce that I had as well as the mushy bananas on my counter. 

Egg-free banana muffins (makes roughly 12)

Adapted from here.

What I used for the muffins:

200g plain flour

1tsp baking soda

1tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

3-4 ripe bananas

1 tsp vanilla

120g brown sugar

125ml cup apple sauce

15 ml veg oil

½ cup of dark chocolate chips

What I used for the chocolate crumble topping:

120g plain flour

50g butter

80g brown sugar

2 tbs water (30ml)

50g chopped nuts (optional)

18g cocoa (2.5 tbs)

What I did for the crumble:

1. Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, sugar and cocoa). (I used a hand-held mixer)
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a slow setting on the stove.
3. Add the melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix lightly with a spoon so that you end up with lots of largish clumps and lumps of crumble. 
4. Sprinkle the water over the ingredients and mix to help create more lumps.
5. Add the chopped nuts to the crumble mix and mix lightly with a spoon.  Set the mixture aside.

What I did for the muffins:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan oven).
2. Line a cupcake/muffin tin with cupcake/muffin liners.
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl with a whisk.  I use a hand-held mixer for all my whisking.
4. Whisk the brown sugar, eggs, apple sauce and oil in another bowl with an electric mixer or hand-held mixer.
5. Mash the bananas well with a fork and add to the wet ingredients.  Mix with your usual mixer tool.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix gently with a wooden spoon until just combined.
7. Fold the chocolate chips into the batter with a spoon or spatula.
8. Divide the batter into the 12 cupcake liners and spoon the crumble mixture on top of each one.
9. Bake until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out cleanly.  This takes roughly 20-25 minutes.
10. Leave the muffins to cool in the tins for 10 minutes then cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

ps.

Eat quickly!  I find that storing them in a plastic airtight container tends to soften the crunchy crumble due to the moisture from the muffins.