These Peanut Butter Banana Muffins are a delicious, low sugar snack. They combine the great taste of peanut butter with bananas for a delicious healthy snack, excellent for breakfast or for packing in your child’s school lunch.

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Some muffins are more like desserts than snacks – like my Double Chocolate Chip muffins or Monkey Bread muffins. Those treats are packed with sugar and while they are delicious they aren’t something I’d eat for breakfast. These Peanut Butter Banana muffins, on the other hand, are designed to be a healthy, low sugar breakfast or snack that you won’t feel guilty about eating or about serving to your children.
Peanut Butter Banana Muffin Ingredients
These muffins have a ton of flavor, but not much added sugar, which makes them excellent for breakfast or for a quick snack. In addition to sugar these muffins are sweetened with bananas and apple sauce, which keeps them moist and delicious.
One of the nice things about this recipe is it doesn’t involve any unusual ingredients. Everything in the muffins is stuff I almost always have in the house, so I can make these on a day when I want to make a treat but didn’t plan ahead. It just takes ordinary ingredients that I can find in my pantry, which is nice because planning ahead is not a strength of mine!
The secret to keeping these muffins moist and tasty is to use overripe bananas. The bananas that have brown and even black spots and that squish if you even brush against them are perfect for baking.
Bananas that are overripe are also sweeter, which makes for tastier muffins. If your bananas go soft too fast learn how to store bananas so they last longer.
Healthy Snack Option
To make these muffins extra healthy I swapped out the oil in the recipe for unsweetened apple sauce. This is a great way to cut the calories and fat without changing the taste. Even with an entire cup of applesauce these muffins don’t taste like apples. The peanut butter and banana taste masks the subtle applesauce and you’d never know it is there.
And peanut butter and banana are two of my favorite flavors combined together. I enjoy the two flavors together more than I enjoy either one separately, so I love these muffins.
The combination of the bananas and applesauce also adds natural sweetness to the recipe, which means the muffins don’t need much extra sugar. I did include half a cup of sugar in the recipe, and I don’t think they’d taste nearly as good without it. But spread across 12 muffins that really isn’t much sugar, especially compared to a recipe for dessert type muffins.
Making the Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
These muffins are made like all muffin recipes – by mixing all the dry ingredients in one mixing bowl, all the wet ingredients in another mixing bowl and then mixing them together quickly. In this recipe there are lot of wet ingredients, including the bananas, applesauce and peanut butter. Mix these ingredients together well with each other before they are combined with the dry ingredients. The peanut butter is thick and the bananas need to be mashed, so this step takes a little more effort in this muffin recipe.
The other key to good muffins is preparation. Before you mix the batter together make sure the oven is preheated and the muffin tins are greased. Muffins need to be mixed and baked quickly, so make sure you will be able to get them in the oven right after you mix the ingredients together. I made these muffins in tall individual silicon muffin cups from Ikea, just to make a little different muffin shape.
I filled the muffin cups up to almost the top and then I sprinkled peanuts on top of the muffins before they were baked to give them a nice extra crunch. The crunchy texture of the peanuts pair perfectly with the soft muffins.
The muffins taste faintly of peanut butter, but it is not an overwhelming flavor like you’d find in a peanut butter cookie. It is just a subtle, delicious taste. My family loved the muffins and they were gone by the next day!
So if you are looking for a muffin that will work well for breakfast or an afterschool snack give these peanut butter banana muffins a try. And more more peanut butter desserts try these peanut butter banana cookies!
Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 ripe bananas mashed
- 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 cup peanuts chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Use cooking spray to spray your muffin tins.
- Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) in one bowl.1 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Mix the wet ingredients (bananas, apple sauce, peanut butter, egg, vanilla) in another bowl. Make sure the banana gets mashed up and the peanut butter is mixed in well. The mixture should be smooth, not chunky.2 ripe bananas, 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce, 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1 egg, 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients, stirring until just mixed.
- Put the batter in muffin cups or tins.
- Sprinkle the chopped peanuts on top of the muffins.1/4 cup peanuts
- Bake for 20 minutes, until a little bit browned on top.
- Cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- Nutrition facts are estimates.
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition facts are estimates.
our grocer has Musselman applesauce on special this week, perfect timing with this recipe. I started freezing peeled ripe bananas so I could bake breads, cakes and muffins. I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Girl! You are totally speaking my language. I love peanut butter and bananas together and those muffins look divine.
Yummy… I found your link on Whimsy Wednesday. I love peanut butter and these muffins look delectable. Thank you for sharing. Cheri xo
LOVE PB and Banana – and who doesn’t love a good muffin
I think I would really enjoy these muffins! Please consider adding your recipe to Muffin Tin Month at Swirls and Spice!
Oh my word, these look amazing! Totally pinning for later!!!
Fall is definitely comfort food season. I find myself browsing Pinterest wanting to make all the things. These look especially delicious. Thanks so much for sharing at Inspire Me Wednesday. Featuring you in next week’s issue.
G’day! Look great! Thanks for sharing at our #SayGdayParty!
Please remember to stop back if you haven’t already and say G’day to the hosts and someone else at the party!
Cheers! Joanne @ What’s On The List Pinned!
I have some pretty ripe bananas today so I will be making these for Sunday breakfast. Love the muffin cups. Where did you get those?
Great recipe! Found you on Pieced Pastimes link up =)
G’Day! Great combo of PB and bananas. Love it!
Visiting from Saturday Night Live. I’ve yet to try peanut butter and banana together, these muffins look great. I co-host Sweet and Savoury Sunday and would love for you to stop by and share this and other recipes with us. Have a great day!
This looks awesome! I know that peanut butter and bananas are a good combination, but I’ve never had them like this!
Your Peanut Butter Banana Muffins look delicious. Hope you are having a great fall day and thanks so much for sharing this awesome post with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
PB and banana–so good together. Your muffins look really good. Nice photos too!
The only applesauce I have is sweetened. Can I use this and cut the sugar in 1/2?