muffins for preschool

When our boy is eating them, I make muffins for his snack at preschool. And my husband loves them as well, so if I bake them right before I leave for Pilates, chances are the dozen I baked will be significantly reduced by the time I get home. A friend asked for the recipe last week and doesn’t have a kitchen scale so when I made them the other night I weighed the ingredients into the measuring cup before putting them into the bowl.

Apple Banana Muffins (based on Nigella’s recipe from Nigella Express)
½ c plus 1 tsp vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 c applesauce, unsweetened (or pear sauce)
1 banana
1 ¾ c flour (250 g)
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar (80 g)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ c chocolate chips – optional (80g)

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F. Mix the oil and eggs together and set aside. Mash the banana in a small bowl and mix in the applesauce. In a mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix. Add the oil/egg mixture and the fruit and stir until just combined. Add in the chocolate chips, if using. Spoon the batter into 12 regular sized greased (or lined with muffin papers) muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes until the tops spring back when pressed.

There are numerous variations for this recipe. The original recipe calls for 3 bananas instead of the 1c applesauce and 1 banana. Any pureed fruit can substitute for the applesauce but if it is sweetened you may want to cut back on the sugar a bit. I have used 1 c of pumpkin (or roasted squash or grated zucchini) for the applesauce and ½ c of applesauce for the fruit and added in ½ tsp of cinnamon and ¼ tsp of nutmeg and used raisins instead of chocolate chips. And toffee or white chocolate chips can be used instead of chocolate chips.