Healthier Coffee Cake Muffins!

Greetings and happy Friday to everyone! This weather made is seem like a Monday this morning, but I've been continually correcting my brain that it is indeed weekend time. :) I'm back with a healthified recipe, just like I promised! This was adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe, you can check it out here if you'd like. I was actually surprised by how sweet these turned out; I cut down the sugar SO much and they are still super sweet! I added a range for the sugar in the streusel, so you can decide if you want lightly sweet or heavily sweet; the choice is yours! I tossed a banana into these, but if you'd rather not you could just leave it out. The muffins might not be quite as moist, so please don't hate me if you take it out and that happens :)

Banana Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake Muffins
makes 12

Ingredients

1/8 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry or all-purpose GF flour

1 cup oat flour (making your own? Measure one cup after you grind the oats!)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 ripe banana, broken into smaller pieces or already a little mashed

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup stevia for baking

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 egg

1/8 tsp. salt

Streusel

1/8 - 1/4 c unpacked brown sugar (depending on the sweetness level you want)

1/2 cup oats, pulsed 8-10 times in the processor but not all the way ground

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 - 1 tbsp. honey; depending on how much you want the streusel to clump

P.S. this makes A LOT; if you want less streusel in the middle and on the top, cut down the oats to 1/3 cup.

Directions

Prepare streusel topping: In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon. I made this recipe with ¼ cup brown sugar, but it is pretty dang sweet and I’ll probably make it with 1/8 cup next time! Drizzle in honey and use a fork to mix. Small clumps should form. Put in the fridge while you make the batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin . In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together coconut oil, banana, applesauce, stevia and vanilla until well-blended (no chunks of banana). Beat in the egg until well combined. With mixer on low, beat flour mixture into batter.

Divide half the batter among prepared muffin cups.

Top with half the streusel mixture, then remaining batter. I used a spatula to spread the top batter out a little bit, but if you want them to look really pretty and smooth you’ll need to spend a few more seconds on that than I did. ;) Top the muffins with the remaining streusel (which is a lot!).

 Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition per muffin (using ¼ cup for brown sugar and ½ tbsp. of  honey): 116.8 calories; 3.5 grams fat; 2.3 grams fiber; 6.1 grams sugar; 2.5 grams protein

These are wonderfully cinnamon-y and sweet, you would have no idea they were made healthier if you hadn't made them yourself! Plus they make your apartment smell amazing; if only I could capture the smell into a candle! Brew a cup of joe, eat a muffin and enjoy yourself.

Let me know if you have any muffin-baking-related questions. I'm off to run! Happy baking :)

--KQ