Blender Muffins: Peanut Butter and Bananas for Breakfast Anyone?

We’ve had a Vitamix® super duper blender for a few years.  We used to use it for making those healthy green smoothies that were so popular back then.  As it took about 40 minutes to prepare the vegetables and fruits to make those green smoothies, we still felt hungry after drinking them, and the smoothies weren’t all that wonderfully tasting (let’s face it), we tucked away our Vitamix® into a corner on the kitchen counter and used it only to make bread crumbs.

The Vitamix® came with a cookbook, and I happened to pull it out the other day to see how to make a chocolate-hazelnut spread.  I came to realize that there were so many delicious dishes, both savory and sweet, that Vitamix® can be used for.  I dusted off the machine and decided to make some homemade peanut butter.  That turned out pretty good–it was very smooth and the oil didn’t separate out.  Then I came across a breakfast muffin recipe that called for peanut butter and ripe bananas.  I had to try it out!

For this recipe, the Vitamix® is used only to blend the wet ingredients, so a regular blender could be used in place of a Vitamix® if you don’t have one.  It will just take a little longer to mix the ingredients together.  With the Vitamix®, it only took 15-20 seconds!  The muffin tin I used was a cupcake pan that makes regular-sized cupcakes.  That means the muffins are on the small-side by comparison to the muffins sold in coffee shops or at the grocery store.  They are smaller, but I figured they would end up being healthier serving sizes for the kids.

On to making these muffins.  I got the cupcake pans prepared by inserting paper liners.  But, of course, I ran out of paper liners.  I buttered and floured the rest.  I got the dry ingredients ready by combining the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.  Then I turned to my high-powered blender.  You have to put the wet ingredients in first, so I poured in the milk, then put in the eggs, vanilla, peeled bananas (mash if using a regular blender), peanut butter, and softened butter.  I topped it off with one dry ingredient, which was sugar, both granulated and brown (note: the original recipe called for only granulated sugar).

I hit the power button and revved it up about half-way.  It only took a few seconds for the bananas to be completely pulverized, and the bananas and peanut butter to be blended into the eggs and milk.

I poured this mixture into the flour mixture and used a hand-held electric mixer–at the lowest speed–to make a smooth batter.

I made a decision to divide the batter in half and make two flavors:  plain and chocolate chip.  For the plain ones, I sprinkled oats over top before putting them in the oven, as recommended by the original recipe.

As for the rest of the batter, I mixed in the chocolate chips.

I spooned the batter into the paperless cupcake tin.  Instead of sprinkling oats over top, I “decorated” the tops with extra chocolate chips.

In a quick 20 minutes, they were ready to come out of the oven.  Here are the oat-topped muffins, which I was glad to see rose nicely.

I removed them from the pan and cooled them on a wire rack.  But then, it was time to taste them.

With some coffee.

Here are the chocolate chip muffins.

I’m glad I added some extra chocolate chips on top because if I didn’t, they would have looked way too plain.

Not too big, not too small, and best of all, not too heavy like the mega muffins from the store.

Both kinds of muffins were a hit with the family.  The flavors from the peanut butter and banana in this combination are subtle, so there is no denying that this is more a breakfast muffin than a cupcake.  I’m now thinking about another recipe to try.  My Vitamix® is back in action again!