Recipe: Seedy Banana Date Muffins

These seedy muffins are pretty healthy, so you don't have to feel guilty for eating one or two for breakfast! They're pretty easy to modify too, which I love. I'll outline some different modifications you can use below.

Seedy Banana Date Muffins

Ingredients:

3/4 cup mixed seeds (sesame, poppy, flax, sunflower, pumpkin, anise)
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla (or 1 tsp if using vanilla yogurt)
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp wheat germ (optional)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar


Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups.

2. Mix the seeds first. Here's where you can be most creative. Use whatever seeds you have on hand, though it's best if they aren't salted (my pumpkin seeds were - I rubbed some of the salt off with a paper towel). I like to use 1 tbsp of anise seeds because the flavour is a perfect complement to the dates, but too much can be overpowering. The first time I made these, I didn't have poppy seeds & I found them to be a bit less dry than when they're included. If that seems to be the case when you mix everything together, feel free to add a bit more yogurt for moisture.

3. Reserve 3 tbsp of seeds.
4. Chop your dates. If you prefer not to have chunks of date in your muffins, you can blend them with 1/2 cup of water (using a blender or food processor). If you go this route, only use 1 banana & 1/4 cup of yogurt. Chop your pecans & mash your bananas.

5. Mix your wet ingredients (banana, yogurt, oil, vanilla & eggs).If you opted to blend your dates with water, mix them in too.

6. Mix the dry ingredients (sugars, flours, wheat germ, baking soda, salt & cream of tartar).If you decided to chop your dates, add them into the dry ingredients now. This will ensure that they don't all clump together (as they are very sticky).
7. Gently mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. As with all muffin batter, do not overmix. Just stir until everything is moistened.Fold in the seeds (less 3 tbsp) & pecans.
8. Fill your muffin cups. Remember those 3 tbsp of seeds?Sprinkle them on top of each muffin.
9. Bake for 18-20 minutes. This recipe yielded 18 muffins for me. Since I only have 1 muffin pan that holds a dozen muffins, the second batch was only half full. When this happens, make sure to fill the remaining cups with water so that your muffins bake evenly.
Enjoy! These are particularly tasty warm & buttered!