RECIPE: Healthy banana and raspberry muffins

Ooh you can tell I'm home for the holidays, can't you? What with all the recipes I've been blogging of late. Too much cooking, not enough essay writing. You may also have noticed a trend in that I've been focussing on healthy recipes recently, and this one carries on that theme nicely...

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These muffins are actually really good for you - with their energy-boosting oats, banana and wholemeal flour, they're super for breakfast. The recipe uses oil instead of butter and not too much sugar so you really can have your cake (well, muffin) and eat it without feeling guilty. As there's not a load of sugar in them, it's important you have reeeaaally ripe bananas, as the riper they are, the sweeter the muffins will be. If not, you can always up the sugar quantity.

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I love baking with yoghurt and mashed bananas as they give the muffins a lovely texture. Adding the frozen berries works really well in my opinion, and I adore the juicy tartness when you bite into one. This recipe makes 12-14 muffins that are perfect for a wholesome breakfast or a healthier alternative to cake with your afternoon tea (they're particularly scrummy when warm.) Oh, and they're super quick and easy to make - just look how short the recipe is!

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Ingredients

200g wholemeal self-raising flour
50g rolled oats
75g light brown muscovado sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
2 bananas, mashed
150ml fat free natural yoghurt
2 eggs
2 tbsp sunflower oil
6 tbsp milk
200g frozen raspberries


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tray with paper cases.

2. Mix the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder together in a large mixing bowl. Mash the bananas in a medium bowl, add the yoghurt, eggs, oil and milk and lightly beat them all together.  Stir the wet mix into the flour mixture along with the raspberries (don't overmix).

3. Spoon into muffin cases and bake for 20-25 mins until golden on top. Leave to cool for a few minutes in the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully… If you can wait that long anyway!