Banana Flax-Bran Muffins (Dairy free! And Delicious!)

Last week I had a huuuuge pile of overripe bananas (some wrecking havoc in my freezer, too) and a brand new bag of bran, which I have never baked with before. Bananas are a beloved food around here, but also rationed quite heavily due to their ability to "stop up the works", if you catch my drift. Oh, the tragedy! But paring them with whole wheat, bran, flax meal, carrot and dried fruit makes it all okay! These are really healthy muffins and quite delicious, too. Even my non-muffin eater devoured them (well, the ones with chocolate chips anyway, lets not go overboard). I froze half, which we’ve been enjoying for snacks or mealtimes all this week.

The original recipe was found here. I doubled it and altered it just slightly, as noted.

1/2 cup butter/margarine, softened (I used half coconut oil, half dairy-free margerine)
1/2 brown sugar
3 overripe bananas, mashed (I put in slightly more, due to the banana monsoon we were having)
1/4 milk (I used soy)
1/2 cup applesauce
3 T ground flax seed
1/2 cup raisins (I used currants/nuts in half of the batter, chocolate chips in the other half)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 finely grated carrot
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat bran
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a muffin pan or line with muffin papers (I made some mini muffins as well as regular sized muffins).

In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream shortening(s) and brown sugar.

Add mashed bananas, milk, vanilla, raisins, applesauce, grated carrot and eggs; mix well. Add bran so it can soften.

In separate bowl, mix together flour, flax seeds, baking powder, soda and salt. Add to wet ingredients, just mixing until blended. Stir in nuts (and/or chocolate chips, which I highly recommend!).
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups of choice.

Bake at 375 for 18 – 25 minutes, depending on size of muffins. YUM YUM YUM!