My name is Ellen, and (you may have already gathered that) I’m a nut butter addict.
I currently have nine types in my dorm room. I’d say I have a problem, but when you have that much nut butter in your life, how many problems can you really have?
I don’t know exactly when I developed this obsession, but I’m pretty sure it started with peanut butter and apples. My go-to snack for years of childhood was a mountain of Jif and crunchy apple slices. I always made sure I had some extra peanut butter to eat even after the apple slices were gone. Other favorites included spoons dipped in peanut butter and chocolate chips, pretzels and peanut butter, and toast with peanut butter and bananas.
Somewhere in there, I guess I got brave and decided to try almond butter. Love at first bite. And I know my first encounter with cashew butter was in the form of Archer Farms (unfortunately discontinued) Peanut, Almond, & Cashew Butter. That stuff was the best.
Now, I don’t discriminate. All nut butter is delicious, and I am pretty convinced it has the magical power of making anything better.
Including banana bread.
Have you ever slathered warm banana bread in crunchy peanut butter? Salted almond butter? Creamy cashew butter? Chocolate peanut butter? No? Please do it. Life-changing, I tell you.
Life. Changing.
Actually, don’t leave it at that. Nope. Take it a step further with these.
These sweet, fluffy banana muffins have a pool of gooey nut butter inside them. Yep, it’s built-in. And it is glorious.
I wanted to be bossy and tell you to make these with a specific nut butter, I really did. But I’ve made them with cashew and peanut butter, and I couldn’t tell you which I like more. So make them with your favorite. Or all of your favorites.
And you thought banana bread couldn’t get better.
- 2 T. canola oil
- 1/4 c. Greek yogurt
- 1/4 c. maple syrup
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 c. milk
- 1 T. vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 c. mashed overripe banana (about 315 g.)
- 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 t. baking soda
- 1/2 t. salt
- 3/4 t. cinnamon
- 1/4 t. nutmeg
- ~10 T. nut butter
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray two muffin pans with cooking spray.
- Whisk together oil, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, brown sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed banana in a bowl until mostly smooth. If there are some small banana chunks remaining, that's not a bad thing. They add nice texture to the finished muffins!
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Pour wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until combined.
- Using a 1/4 c. measuring cup, scoop batter from bowl and pour about half into a muffin cavity. Really, it's just important that it covers the bottom of the cavity.
- Scoop a small amount (about 3/4 T.) nut butter on top of the batter you just poured.
- Cover nut butter with the remaining batter in the measuring cup, and repeat until batter is gone. I got 13 1/4 c. muffins and had a tiny bit of batter remaining.
- Bake muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F to get nice lift on the tops before turning the oven down to 350° for about 7-9 minutes. Mine took 8 additional minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
- Serve warm (microwaving them does the trick if you aren't eating them right away) for perfectly melty nut butter centers, but they're honestly fabulous at room temperature, as well. You can't go wrong!
- If you want these to be oil free, you can use all Greek yogurt. I personally prefer the texture with a little fat, and it's a small amount spread over the entire batch.
- I used plain nonfat Greek yogurt. Any flavor and fat content will work.
- Honey may be used in place of the maple syrup.
- I honestly prefer the texture and taste of all-purpose flour, but white whole wheat yields perfectly good results.
- I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but use your preferred type of milk.
- Use your favorite nut butter! Or a combination. I've made these with Trader Joe's Crunchy Salted Peanut Butter with Flax and Chia Seeds and Simply Balanced Creamy Cashew Butter, but a chocolate nut butter or almond butter would be amazing, too. I'm excited to try some other butters!
- If you really don't want to do a temperature change, they can be baked at 350°F for 14-16 minutes, but the tops will be a little flatter.
What’s your favorite way to eat nut butter?
What was your favorite snack as a kid?
Only 9? Come on girl 😉 Hahaha! No, no, I’m the same! I may have too many and I have to keep all the ones i’m not currently using wedged in every little bit of space I can find in my tiny kitchen! Right now I’m obsessing over TJs cashew butter the most….just SOOOO good!
Mmm. I need to make a TJ’s trip soon!
Omg you and I are twins. I essentially wrote this same story for my recipe today. I love eating nut butter with a spatula (I got jumbo jars of Skippy so I need a long spoon to get at it), on top of bread, on top of Picky bars, really anything can be a vehicle. I recently tried something good, it’s peanut noodles. You melt PB and thin it out with a bit of milk and then pour it on noodles. Kind of easy and kind of delicious! Thanks for the recipe
LOL I love the spatula comment ? Peanut noodles sound lovely – thanks for the idea!
Wow these look delicious!! Love bananas and nut butters and muffins… so I need these in my life ASAP!
Yes! Do it 😀
Love this! I never thought to put a butter inside bread, I need to try this!
Let me know if you do!!
I want these ALL! Banana bread and nut butter is my weakness. These are seriously making me drool!!!
Haha I think throughout yesterday I ate half the batch ?
I like the name you went with for these muffins. And yes, ALL the nut butter!
Haha thanks, Kaylin!
BRB, have to make these now! It reminds me of being home and my mom would make banana bread.
http://www.repressingthecrazy.com
Let me know if you do! 😀
Whilst I am not a fan of Peanut Butter on its own (sorry!), I absolutely LOVE all other types of nut butter and always have some type of Almond, Cashew or mixed nut butter in the cupboard. This recipe looks totally delicious and I can’t wait to try it out 🙂
More PB for me 😉 But to be honest, I love ’em all!
I don’t know why it never dawned on me to try peanut butter with banana bread or muffins! What a fantastic flavor combination 🙂
Thanks! I figure PB goes with bananas, so why not banana bread? 😉
Raises hand… I love nut butter muffins too!! 🙂 I should try these. I have so many recipes to try. 🙂
Hahaha I feel like that all the time – so many recipes, so little time!
Yum yum yum. Nothing better than banana and nut butter…especially in muffin form. Muffin is definitely my favorite form of baked good! Great recipe chica.
Thanks, Hayley 🙂
NOMS. And hey, great name! lol
Thanks! And thanks for the help 🙂
These look delicious! I can totally tell how most they are just from the pictures. And I LOVE the banana nut butter muffin title 😉
Thanks so much, Liv! 🙂
Oh my gosh, I am all about the nut butters too, Ellen! You name it, I’ve got it! 😉 These muffins look SERIOUSLY amazing! There’s nothing better than finding a treasure trove of nut butter inside a delicious banana muffin. Sign me up, I say!
Thanks so much, Lisa!! Let me know if you try them! 😀