With all the flavor of a big muffin, these mini muffins fit nicely into little hands, and big ones too. 

As a mother aspiring to raise a “Petit World Citizen,” I was happy to accept a recent invitation to a morning café with French speaking mothers and their children. As my French speaking ability is far from where I’d like it to be, this café time was a gentle reminder that I really need to practice more—if not only for me, but also for the sake of son. As he is being raised bilingual, it will be increasingly important for him to meet other French speaking children as he grows. It will also be easier to motivate him to speak French in his English speaking environment if he sees that I too am making the effort. Yes, I need to be that example…. I have much more to say about this, but I will have to save it for another post. Right now, it’s all about these cute and handsome little muffins I brought for the little ones, and their moms too.

Of course you can also make these muffins in a regular full-size muffin pan; just remember to increase baking time to 15-18 minutes and check early for doneness. Be sure you’ve already introduced wheat and eggs before giving these muffins to baby.

Mini Banana Apple Bran Muffins
1 cup organic whole wheat flour
½ cup organic oat bran
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
¾ cup organic applesauce or apple purée (for other ideas, visit my purées section)
3 medium organic bananas, 1 mashed (about ½ cup) and 2 sliced
½ cup packed organic light brown sugar
2 cage-free, organic eggs

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 24 mini muffin cups or 12 regular muffin cups.

With a fork, combine flour, bran, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat or in a microwave for 25 seconds on High. In a large bowl, combine melted butter, applesauce, mashed banana, sugar and eggs. Mix together with a rubber spatula. Add flour mixture to applesauce mixture and stir until just blended. Batter will be bumpy and very moist.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full. Place a banana slice on top of each muffin. Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown and set. Cool muffins in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before turning out muffins.

Recipe Source: The Petit Appetit Cookbook by Lisa Barnes

Bon Appetit!
Martine