Healthy Banana Nut Wheat Bran Muffins! Packed with fiber and natural sweetness, they’re an irresistible option for a quick breakfast, a satisfying snack, or a wholesome bake-ahead option to stash in the freezer for busy days.
These Healthy Banana Nut Wheat Bran Muffins are a sunshine-filled treat you’ll want to bookmark for busy mornings. Bursting with sweet bananas, crunchy chopped walnuts, and wholesome wheat bran, they strike the perfect balance between indulgent flavor and nourishing goodness. The muffins bake up moist and lightly sweet, delivering a comforting bite that pairs beautifully with a cup of coffee or cup of tea.
Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients.
Hi there, Ameera here!
Dad devoured these muffins! They were gone in a flash, and he was begging for more. The moment the kitchen timer dinged, the muffins disappeared like magic, leaving behind only a tidy crumb trail and happy sighs.
You’ve got to give this one a try—the banana sweetness mingles with toasty walnuts and warm wheat bran to create a muffin that’s textured, moist, and wildly addictive.
Stock up on ripe bananas, because this recipe is blogger-approved, family-tested, and guaranteed to become a weekly favorite for breakfasts, snacks, and quick sprint-worthy meals.
Tips for Success:
- Flavor Profile: These Healthy Banana Nut Wheat Bran Muffins are delicious, filled with sweet bananas, chopped walnuts, and healthy wheat bran. They are moist and lightly sweet, perfect for breakfast or a snack.
- Resting the Muffins before Baking: Resting the muffin batter for at least 5 minutes (up to 10 minutes) before baking allows the flour to fully hydrate. This makes for a tender crumb.
- Oven Temperature Switch: Start the oven at 400F for the first 7 minutes, this allows the muffins to quickly crest and puff up creating that beautiful muffin dome.
- Cinnamon: Not all cinnamon is created equal. Some brands of cinnamon are light and passively flavored while others are strong, sharp, and astringent. Use judgement and start on the low end. You can use your favorite cinnamon in this recipe; however, we suggest starting on the low end until you have a strong understanding of how the cinnamon that you are using in this recipe impacts the flavor.
- Flour Substitutions: These muffins were specifically designed to use whole wheat flour and wheat bran. We do not have any substitutions to offer.
- Measuring Flour: Spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level off. Do not pack it in and do not scoop it in.
- Bananas: Be sure to use overripe brown speckled bananas for full sweetness.
- Amount of Bananas: Place approximately 2 ½ overripe brown speckled bananas (peeled) into a medium-sized bowl and thoroughly mash into a pudding-like mixture. Mash them really well, you should not see any overly large visible chunks of bananas. RESIST the urge to use more than 1 cup of thoroughly mashed bananas or you could potentially have gooey muffins.
- Molasses: The molasses adds excellent depth of flavor and is reminiscent of brown sugar.
- Walnuts or Pecans: The walnuts or pecans are optional. We used chopped walnuts.
- Health Benefits of Wheat Bran: Wheat bran is the nutrient-dense, hard outer layer of the wheat kernel, separated during the milling process. It is exceptionally high in insoluble fiber and packed with nutrients like magnesium, selenium, phosphorus, and iron. Often used to boost fiber intake, it has a light, flaky texture and a mild, sweet-nutty flavor. It can also help manage blood sugar, reduce cholesterol, and support heart health.
- More Recipes using Wheat Bran: Looking for other recipes using wheat bran. We have a whole series of recipes coming out soon using wheat bran. Here are a few that are currently on the blog:
- Muffin Paper Liners: We used natural cupcake liners.
- Muffins Sticking to Liners: Because we do not use oil on the Whole Food Plant Based Diet, the muffins will slightly stick to the paper liners after baking; however, the longer you wait to eat them (several hours), the less they will stick. They don’t stick enough to be concerned, but we do want you to know that they can stick and you will lose a tiny bit of the muffin to the liner.
- Table Salt: If using table salt, you should use less table salt than the amount listed in the ingredients as sea salt crystals are larger than table salt crystals. Since table salt crystals are very fine, less table salt is required to season a dish. We would suggest starting with about 1/4 to 1/2 the amount of sea salt listed. You can always add more salt but cannot take it away. We recommend using sea salt as it is less refined than table salt.
Leftovers and Freezing:
Leftovers will generally keep 4 to 5 days at room temperature. Store in a covered air-tight container.
These muffins freeze well.
Pantry Products:
- Whole Wheat Flour: We used Sunrise Flour Mill Organic Heritage Whole Wheat Flour. Feel free to use your favorite whole wheat flour.
- Wheat Bran: We used Bob’s Red Mill Wheat Bran. Feel free to use your favorite wheat bran.
- Molasses: We used Grandma’s Unsulfured Original Molasses. Feel free to use your favorite molasses.
- Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
Kitchen Equipment:
- Muffin tin (holds 12 regular-sized muffins)
- 12 Paper cupcake/muffin liners
If you try these delicious muffins, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.
Print
Healthy Banana Nut Wheat Bran Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 Minutes
- Cook Time: 20-21 Minutes
- Total Time: 35 Minutes
- Yield: 12 Muffins 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These Healthy Banana Nut Wheat Bran Muffins are a sunshine-filled treat you’ll want to bookmark for busy mornings.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour *
- 1 cup wheat bran *
- 2 Tablespoons flaxseed meal
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon *
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch (or arrowroot powder)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt *
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup mashed bananas *
- ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon molasses *
- ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons unsweetened plain plant milk
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Other Optional Ingredients:
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F, center rack.
- Line the muffin tin with 12 paper liners, set aside.
- Mash the bananas thoroughly into an almost pudding-like texture, measure exactly one cup, then set aside.
- Place the all the Dry Ingredients into a large mixing bowl, whisk to combine.
- Add all the Wet Ingredients, including the mashed bananas to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly by hand to incorporate all the ingredients.
- Stir in the chopped walnuts (or pecans).
- Carefully spoon the batter into the paper-lined muffin tin up to the top.
- After spooning the muffin batter into the liners, allow the muffin batter to sit for 5 minutes on the counter before placing in the oven.
- Place in a 400 F preheated oven for 7 minutes, then after 7 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 350 F and bake for 13 to 14 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins and move them to a cooling rack. Allow to cool for 45 minutes on the cooling rack, then enjoy! Store at room temperature in an air-tight container.
Notes
Please reference the blog post for Tips for Success, Pantry Items Used, Storage and Freezing, and Kitchen Products Used.
Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
Servings: Makes 12 regular-sized muffins
Nutritional Information: Leaving the nuts out reduces fat to 0.8g
This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.
Leave a Reply