The creamy rich flavor of barley flour, blended with sweet, ripe bananas, olive oil instead of butter and thick nutrient rich yogurt makes for the best, healthy banana muffins ever.
Bananas
Good grief does Brazil have a gazillion bananas!! I never saw so many different types of bananas in my life; and can you believe it took four tries of biting into the wrong bananas before I found the one banana I know from America!
Once I found the banana I was looking for, I couldn’t believe the only thing Brazilians did with the gazillion fast rotting bananas, was make a cream pie with them.
Well… I made several large batches of banana muffins, gave them out to many of my new friends, and wouldn’t you know it; Brazilians being the entrepreneurs that they are, I had offers right and left to open a muffin shop, maybe even a chain of muffin shops!
Banana Muffins
Who would have thought that banana muffins could become a fast, easy way to slip in nourishing ingredients for the family.
With barley, olive oil, cardamom, and yogurt, this recipe treats my family to a nutrient rich bite every time. I can’t think of a better way to start the day or a healthier afternoon snack.
Overripe bananas are the best bananas to use in this recipe, you know, the ugly brown, mushy bananas everyone throws away.
If you are using that kind of banana, you can even cut the sugar out completely and just leave the molasses in. The natural sugar in the overripe banana is plenty sweet enough.
Barley Flour
While all-purpose flour works perfectly well in this recipe, if you don’t have barley flour, there is something unique about barley flour that inspired me to use it with bananas, and certainly worth it to buy yourself some barley flour.
Barley flour has a sweet, almost almond-like nutty flavor which I have come to prefer in many of my baking recipes.
Texture? If you’ve ever made a pot of barley and a pot of rice, which grain is creamier, smoother and more flavorful? Yep! The barley.
For this reason, I have stopped using rice when making dishes I grew up with, such as Stuffed Grape Leaves. Sorry mom, but the barley is so much nicer with ground lamb wrapped in grape leaves.
I even prefer barley instead of rice when blending it with French lentils, an optional, meatless stuffing I like to use with grape leaves, stuffed tomatoes or peppers.
Barley flour has a creamier texture in baked goods, and so it was the perfect grain to blend with creamy bananas and creamy yogurt. Too creamy? Not at all. Once baked the texture is cake-like yet still moist.
Welcome To Muffin Madness!
In my family, I have always been known as the muffin queen, simply because over the years I have created about 25 different muffin recipes, and still creating!
As a single mom of 4, during those insanely disjointed, hectic years of age 6 to 16, with school, hobbies, work and hormones, I needed a friend!
Muffins became my antidote to madness. My friend. How? I needed a quick, healthy and affordable breakfast, a to-go snack and I needed the kids to be able to help make them.
And so… as I share my beloved muffin recipes with YOU, one by one, each and every week for your busy weekday or weekend treats, I hope you will let me know which ones have been your favorite! Yep! Muffin Madness 52!!
Ingredients Needed
- Bananas
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Molasses
- Olive oil
- Yogurt
- Barley flour
- All-purpose flour
- Cardamom
- Mace
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
Equipment Needed
- Large mixing bowl
- Fork
- Whisk
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Muffin tin
- Baking paper cups
- Ice cream scooper or spoon
- Oven
My Muffin Madness Cookbook
Now that I’ve got you thinking outside the box about muffins, are you ready to try other creative and delicious muffin recipes you won’t find anywhere else?
Hot off the press this year: My Muffin Madness Cookbook!
Best Barley Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- Bananas – 2, very ripe
- Eggs – 2
- Sugar – 1/4 cup
- Molasses – 1/4 cup
- Olive Oil – ½ cup
- Yogurt – ½ cup plain
- Barley Flour – 1 1/2 cups
- All-purpose flour – 1/2 cup
- Cardamom – 2 tsp
- Mace – 1/2 tsp
- Baking Powder – 2 tsp
- Baking Soda – ½ tsp
- Salt – ½ tsp
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Prepare muffin tins with baking paper cups.
- In a large mixing bowl, place the ripe bananas and mash them with a fork.
- Whisk in the eggs, sugar, olive oil and yogurt until well blended. Some banana lumps are fine.
- Sprinkle in the flour, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk the batter together.
- Place batter into muffin tins, ¾ full.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a tester comes out clean.
- Delicious room temperature. Stores in refrigerator for several days.
Nutrition
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.
