Banana Muffins

Its that time of year when many of us are searching out some healthier alternatives to our usual treats. The healthy eating advice around at the moment seems to be encouraging less refined sugar in our diets so, inspired by some lovely banana bundlettes I found on twitter ( beerandbaking.net ) I further played around with the recipe and came up with these alternatives. They are lovely and soft and just sweet enough using only the natural sugars in the bananas to sweeten them. They wont stay fresh for long so you can freeze them and take them out one by one as you fancy one. For those of you into numbers I have calculated the calorific content (using an app called MyFitnessPal- thanks again Paul) at under 100cals per muffin, but the more important factor is that they have no added sugars and the fat content comes only from the eggs and ground almonds. I will use them as quick breakfast options and for that mid afternoon energy dip – but a word of advice my kids found them not quite sweet enough and thought they were much improved by lashings of cream cheese icing!
Banana Muffins- makes 12

2 very ripe bananas
2 eggs separated
75g rolled oats
75g ground almonds
1 level tsp baking powder

Line a muffin tin with 12 cases and preheat the oven to 175C

Separate the eggs and place the yolks with mashed bananas into a stand mixer. Whisk on full power for approximately 5minutes until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
Meanwhile whisk the egg whites in a glass or metal bowl with a hand whisk until forming stiff peaks.

Carefully fold the oats, ground almonds and baking powder into the egg yolk and banana mixture by hand.

Stir in 1 tbsp of the egg white mixture to loosen then carefully fold in the remaining egg white until completely combined.

Share the mixture between the 12 cases and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until they are light golden brown and bounce back when tested.