*This post for whole wheat sweet potato banana muffins first appeared on February 5, 2012. The recipe has been tweaked slightly (to make it even better, of course!) and the pictures updated.
It had been 4+ years since I made these muffins (one of the best part about going back and updating these old posts is forcing myself to make some of the older recipes on here!) and the second they came out of the oven, I knew that was an unfortunate thing. These might honestly be one of my favorite muffins I’ve ever made.
Perfectly moist, subtly sweet (the banana is not overpowering at all in these) and just so, so delicious with some salted butter smeared in the middle of one warm from the oven or a drizzle of quality honey (I can’t get enough of this peach honey from this quaint little store we visited in Saratoga, NY last fall). They can pass for breakfast, a healthy snack mid-day or even in a savory capacity alongside dinner, especially a soup, stew or chili kind of meal. Enjoy!
(*text below is original)
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These whole wheat sweet potato banana muffins are perfect for breakfast or as a healthy snack. Smear with butter or drizzle with some quality honey. Best served warm!
Sometimes the stuff you see on here is a result of creativity on my part, inspiration from other amazing resources or just intense cravings.
This is not one of those times.
These sweet potato banana muffins had one sole purpose and that was to get rid of a can of sweet potato puree that had been sitting in my pantry for about 2 years, expired by 5 months.
Oops.
Obviously, I pay very close attention to expiration dates.
I could’ve used the puree in these sweet potato oat bars, sweet potato bran muffins or sweet potato cookies but, opted to go a slightly different route with banana and whole wheat flour in these muffins.
I actually find muffins kind of difficult to get right on the first shot, so I was pretty surprised when these ended up turning out exactly how I had envisioned them.
Mostly savory, no intense banana flavor (I just wanted to use it for natural sweetness rather than sugar), perfect with butter, but just as good with soup or chili.
These are not something that will fix a sweet tooth (at all) but that’s ok because there are way better things in life (like TJ’s dark chocolate cookie butter bars…o.m to the g) than muffins for sweet tooth episodes anyway.
Except maybe these peanut butter and jelly muffins or chocolate chip peanut butter banana muffins – I do love both of those!
So far, they’ve been enjoyed for breakfast, as a side at dinner and as a pretty healthy mid-day snack.
Versatile little buggers.
Sometimes expired food is a good thing.
Love this sweet potato banana muffin recipe?
Try one of these:
Avocado Muffins
Whole Wheat Wild Blueberry Ginger Muffins
Strawberry corn muffins
Carrot raisin everything muffins
Banana Nut Almond Pulp Muffins
Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar, (or brown sugar)
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 1 egg
- 1 cup sweet potato puree/mashed sweet potatoes
- 1 banana, mashed (about 100g)
- 3/4 cup any kind of milk, dairy, nut, etc.
- chopped pecans for topping, *optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a mini-muffin tin with baking spray. *see note for full-size muffin tray
- In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
- In another large bowl, combine all the coconut sugar, maple syrup, coconut oil, egg, sweet potato, banana and milk. Whisk until batter is somewhat smooth and thoroughly combined.
- Pour wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until well combined.
- Scoop batter in spoonfuls into the greased muffin tins. Top with chopped pecans if using.
- Bake for about 10 minutes until muffins are risen and the tops and sides are just starting to turn golden brown.
- Remove from oven, let sit in muffin tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
PLEASE NOTE: I tried to halve all the ingredients, as I only had 1/2 cup sweet potato. ADDITIONALLY, I substituted the maple syrup for honey, and added double the cinammon, as I did not have allspice. I used regular whole wheat flour and almond milk. I baked these for 13.5 minutes total.
With this being said, I thought that these were very okay, however, probably because I have a very big sweet tooth and probably tried for a recipe that called for more sweetness.
Hi Kat- glad they turned out with the substitutions you made! And yes, this is a subtly sweet muffin as noted in the post/recipe so they definitely won’t satisfy an intense sweet tooth. You could try increasing the sweetener but I think you’d be better off with a dessert muffin if that’s the case :)
Can I omit the brown sugar entirely and just use 2 tbsp syrup?
I made these this morning, and they are wonderful, unusual and delicious. It has been difficult to find whole wheat baked goods that have a really good crumb…and these do! Accidentally I put in 4 Tbsp. oil instead of two…will probably continue that, because they came out so beautifully. I ended up with fourteen muffins, and baked them for fifteen minutes.
So glad you like them, enjoy! :)
These are great – the only thing I changed was to add a little applesauce and some vanilla. My toddler absolutely loves them, to the point where it’s hard to get him to eat anything else! Thanks for the recipe! :)
Glad you all are enjoying them!