PB & J is a favourite childhood pairing. Capture those nostalgic flavours in these healthy gluten free and vegan PB & J muffins!
Growing up my lunch box contained a sandwich, juice box, and a snack (something like 2 Oreos or a cheese string). For the longest time my mother would make these lame cold cut sandwiches; the longest streak was turkey sandwiches for nearly a month! I was so sick of them. My favourite sandwich was by far Nutella smeared between two slices of fluffy sweet egg bread from the Chinese supermarket. I started packing my own lunch in high school and ditched the cold cuts for pb & j with banana. You literally can not go wrong with natural peanut butter, berry jam, and banana coins. Therefore, these muffins are flippin’ delicious and take me back to my grade school days.
I have such a sweet tooth that at least one of my main meals has to be sweet. Usually it’s breakfast. Cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, smoothie bowls, sweet toasts, baked goods, any combination of the above… pretty much anything that I can slather nut butter on is fair game. That being said, I often eat those things for lunch too. Sometimes even dinner. When it’s exam season my eating patterns go out of wack, haha!
I love love love this muffin recipe and have no doubts that I’ll be baking multiple batches throughout the school year. They are gluten free without having to source ten different types of specialty flours and buy wacky ingredients like xanthan gum. In fact, if you have oats, quinoa, and a coffee grinder then you’re all set to make your own gluten free flour! That has been my most-used baking hack throughout the years. The fluffy and moist muffins that emerge from the oven will have you second guessing whether or not they are actually gluten and refined sugar free. That’s how good they are!
I encourage you to bake a batch of these vegan PB & J muffins this week. They’re perfect for a quick breakfast or a mid-day snack, or even both. My favourite way to enjoy these muffins is reheated in the oven for a about 8 minutes at 350°F and cracked open with generous amounts of natural peanut butter and jam. Because one can never have too much PB & J in their lives. Wash it all down with a tall glass of chilled almond milk and wow, best breakfast evaaaar!
- ⅔ cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2½ medium bananas)
- ⅓ cup natural peanut butter + more for swirling
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup almond milk
- 1⅔ cup oats, ground into flour* (I used quick oats)
- ⅓ cup raw quinoa, ground into flour*
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- About 1 tbsp jam for swirling
- Preheat oven to 400°F and grease 10 cups of a muffin pan with oil. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, peanut butter, oil, maple syrup, and almond milk until combined.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, baking soda and powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the banana mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 10 greased muffin cups.
- Dollop about 1 tsp of peanut butter and ¼ to ½ tsp of jam on the tops of the batter and swirl using a toothpick.
- Bake in preheated oven to 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.
- Cool on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
Adapted from our Vegan & Gluten Free Gingerbread Muffins
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