Strawberry Banana Muffins

These muffins make a wonderful grab-on-the-go breakfast, they are packed with fresh strawberries and banana and have the added benefit of whole wheat! I also replaced the sugar with coconut sugar and the butter with coconut oil, they were moist, flavourful and a perfect medley of sweet and savory, and all topped with toasted coconut. You really can’t go wrong while devouring these delicious muffins.. But be warned, it will be hard to eat just one! Especially if you’re like me and feel the need to sample straight out of the oven! But don’t worry, I won’t judge you for eating 2 of these in one sitting, after all, they are made with healthy ingredients so you don’t even need to feel guilty. And the best part? They taste like such a treat that no one will know! Shhh.. it’s our little secret!

 [Make sure to whisk the dry ingredients to remove any clumps]

[Then whisk the wet ingredients until smooth]

I'm actually quite a new baker, never having much interest in the past as I never ate a lot of baked good, but when I moved in with Sean I realized that it would be incredibly cost AND health effective if I attempted to make more muffins and cookies. This way I can control what goes into them, no more seeing him eat baked good packed with artificial flavours, processed flours and white sugars. The thought of that stuff makes me cringe! So I knew that I had to learn how to make muffins for his breakfast during the week, it took a while, my first few batches came out very dry and I often over baked them. But finally, with this recipe and my few modifications, I feel that I've really come up with something that satisfies his desire for a tasty, moist muffin and my desire to feed us healthy foods!

 [Just loaded with fruity goodness!]

 [I love the crunch of that sweet toasted coconut]

 [Ah yes; happiness is a fresh muffin hot out of the oven]

Strawberry Banana Muffins

These light, airy muffins are bursting with berry-banana goodness with toasted coconut to top!

Time:

Prep Time: 10 minutes // Cook Time: 20 – 22 minutes // Yields: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 TBSP baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk + 1 TBSP white vinegar
• 1/3 c. coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 c. strawberries, dices
• 1 banana, diced
• 2 TBSP shredded, unsweetened coconut

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 12 count muffin pan with coconut oil; set aside
• In a measuring cup, stir together milk and white vinegar and let sit for 5 – 10 minutes*
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside
• In a separate bowl, whisk egg and coconut sugar until creamed, whisk in soured milk, coconut oil and vanilla extract.
• Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just moistened, do not over stir. Add strawberries and bananas to batter and gently fold in.
• Even distribute the batter into prepared muffin tin, and sprinkle each muffin with shredded coconut. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

* This process of mixing milk and white vinegar will “sour” the milk, making it more buttermilk like and creating lighter, moister muffins; you cannot taste the vinegar.

Recipe adapted from http://damndelicious.net/2014/02/17/blueberry-vanilla-muffins/