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These banana protein muffins are a power-packed breakfast or snack! Bananas make them super moist, two types of bran add filling fiber, and blueberries bring a bit of sweetness!
These banana protein muffins have seen me through flights, late-night kitchen services that bleed into early morning production shifts, professional bread school, jury duty and let’s not forget being a mother!
They are moist with hints of banana and cinnamon, filling, a little bit sweet, and full of protein! The perfect easy meal prep that is a great breakfast or snack on the go!
These banana protein muffins will see you through even the most stressful times. I always have healthy carrot muffins, healthy pumpkin muffins, or these healthy peanut butter chocolate chip muffins in my freezer, alongside protein-packed bran muffins.
Why You Will Love These
- Healthy and easy meal prep! Though the ingredient list is long, don’t let these muffins fool you; they will be in your oven in under 15 minutes!
- Tender and moist muffins. Buttermilk, ripe bananas, canola oil and a bit of agave makes these muffins very tender and moist! I promise you no dry bran muffins here.
- Packed with fiber and other nutrients. Between the wheat bran, whole wheat flour, oat bran, and flaxseed, these muffins are packed with fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.
Table of Contents
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Buttermilk: Full-fat buttermilk hydrates the wheat bran, adding moisture and fat to the muffin, which keeps them tender. You can substitute milk for your favorite milk alternative, or even experiment with greek yogurt.. The texture and taste won’t be the same but they will still be delicious.
- Wheat Bran: The bran is the outer layers of the wheat kernel. It is mostly fiber but also contains vitamins and antioxidants. I use it to increase fiber and also bind the wet ingredients together without adding additional calories. If you can’t find wheat bran, replace it with oat bran or rolled oats.
- Egg Whites
- Dark Brown Sugar
- Canola Oil
- Agave: You can substitute with maple syrup or honey if that’s what you have on hand.
- Ripe Bananas: Baking healthy treats with bananas utilizes their natural moisture and sweetness! Be sure to let those bananas ripen before using them.
- Vanilla Extract
- Whole Wheat Flour: I prefer either King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour. Every brand has a slightly different flavor and texture depending on its grinding process. Both these companies take care to control the temperature of the flour during grinding, which preserves the natural flavors, antioxidants, and vitamins that are destroyed at warmer temperatures.
- Oat Bran
- Flaxseed Meal
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder
- Cinnamon
- Whey Protein Powder: Whey protein adds additional protein and helps bind together all the ingredients, including bananas, oil, egg whites, and bran. If you don’t have protein powder, I suggest heading over and making these banana bran muffins!
- Blueberries: You can make these muffins with fresh or frozen blueberries!
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Change up the mix-ins! You can swap out the blueberries for dark chocolate, chocolate chips, strawberries like with my strawberry muffins, walnuts, raisins, or dried apples!
- Switch out the banana. Change the banana to applesauce or pumpkin puree! I would use unsweetened applesauce. Double check that it’s pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie mix.
- Spice it up! Add all your favorite spices! Cardamom, cinnamon, and blueberries would be delightful! You can also use apple pie spice with diced apples!
- Consider trying this speculoos spice mix or this pumpkin spice recipe for some warm, winter-spiced muffins.
Professional Tips
- The pre-soaking of the wheat bran in buttermilk is the key to happiness here! It eliminates all the usual problems with bran muffins.
- Bake in muffin liners. Baking the muffins in liners helps them retain moisture when frozen and during the defrosting process. Don’t worry if you don’t have liners; I would wrap each muffin individually before freezing in a zip-top bag.
- Freeze those muffins. I always freeze these muffins immediately after they cool. This will keep them freshest, and once you grab one for on the go, it will defrost by the time you eat it.
- Don’t bake on convection. I have done all the testing on these muffins, and they just don’t come out as nice when baked on the convection setting.
How to Make Banana Protein Muffins
Use these instructions to make these healthy banana protein muffins! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400°F [not convection] and either grease 12 muffin cups or line with liners.
In the video, I use large muffin tins; you can do this too! You can also use these tulip liners for jumbo muffins like I do with my favorite peach muffins.
Step 2: Mix the buttermilk and wheat bran, then set aside to soak (photo 1).
Step 3: In a separate medium bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, oat bran, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and protein powder, then set aside.
Step 4: In a large mixing bowl, add egg white, sugar, oil, banana, and vanilla and mix until well combined (photo 2).
I prefer to pre-mash the bananas with my whisk before adding the other wet ingredients.
Step 5: Gently stir the dry ingredients into the banana mixture (photo 3). Then fold in the soaked wheat bran and buttermilk mixture and make sure not to leave any lumps of bran unmixed (photo 4).
Step 6: Fold until just combined, leaving a few lumps remaining (photo 5). Then fold in the blueberries, being careful not to overmix the batter (photos 6 & 7).
Step 7: Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan (photo 8) and bake for 15-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool for 5 minutes in tins, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Chef Lindsey’s Recipe Tip
For evenly baked muffins, use a cookie scoop or scale your muffins on a kitchen scale. This will prevent muffins from being underbaked on one side and dry on the other.
Recipe FAQs
I make large batches of these protein banana muffins (usually three times the recipe printed below), cool them down completely, and then freeze them in gallon Ziplock bags.
Usually, I just throw one in my purse, still frozen and wrapped in plastic wrap or in a container, and it has thawed by the time I eat it. A quick zap in the microwave also does the trick!
Yes, you can use your favorite egg substitute for the egg whites, like aquafaba, or applesauce. And for the buttermilk, I find almond milk or coconut milk works the best. But use your favorite milk substitute.
I use LadyBoss Lean whey protein powder for these muffins because I’m obsessed with it. If you use a different brand of flavored protein like peanut butter or vanilla protein powder or plant-based protein, you might need to adjust the amount of buttermilk or add additional water to hydrate these muffins properly.
While I enjoy eating them as is you can cut them in half and serve them toasted with butter, maybe a bit of almond butter or blueberry jam!
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If you tried this recipe and loved it please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below. I love hearing from you; your comments make my day!
Blueberry Protein Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
- 1 ½ cups wheat bran 1 ½ cups
- 3 egg whites
- 6 tablespoons dark brown sugar packed
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- 1 ½ tablespoon agave 1 ½ T
- 2 large bananas mashed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- ½ cup oat bran
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons whey protein I use LadyBoss Lean
- 1 cup blueberries fresh or frozen
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F [not convection] and either grease 12 muffin cups or line with liners.
- Mix the buttermilk and wheat bran, then set aside to soak.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, oat bran, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and protein powder, then set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add egg white, sugar, oil, banana, and vanilla and mix until well combined.
- Gently stir the dry ingredients into the banana mixture. Then fold in the soaked wheat bran and buttermilk mixture and make sure not to leave any lumps of bran unmixed.
- Fold until just combined, leaving a few lumps remaining. Then fold in the blueberries, being careful not to overmix the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and bake for 15-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool for 5 minutes in tins, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed this healthy meal prep recipe. Check out our other delicious muffin recipes like these bakery-style jumbo blueberry muffins or these bright lemon poppyseed muffins!
I wasn’t sure if soaking the bran would make a difference, but the texture turned out really nice and moist, not dense. I thought they were especially good cold with a smear of almond butter for a snack.