Banana and Date Mini Muffins

So our weaning journey started off with baby-led weaning... which we quickly discovered was not really working for us and went back to purees.

It’s been tough getting Baby K to eat; she went through the whole “mouth-clamped-shut” and “refusing-solids” phase quicker than expected. But once her teeth appeared (hallelujah!) all that changed! Now, at 10 months old, she’s on three regular-sized meals a day and yesterday, she had her first finger food!

MUFFINS!

I have to admit… I put a mini muffin in front of her expecting her to pick it up and throw it across the room (as she did with my iPhone earlier *gulp*), so when she took it to her mouth, bit, chewed, swallowed… I was actually quite emotional! My little munchkin eating all by herself, so confidently! I was ridiculously proud and am very happy to be sharing this recipe today 🙂

You might want to know…

I bought my mini muffin tin from Lakeland, along with mini muffin tin liners. You can also buy silicon versions from them. You can of course just make these in a regular-sized muffin pan, but let’s face it… mini muffins are so much cuter!!

Speaking of cuteness, we wrapped a few muffins up for Baby K’s neighbour-friend who is just a few months older than her:

I bought a pack of 10 bags with ribbon in-store at Sainsbury’s.

No added sugar

There’s no added sugar in these muffins; the bananas give it a lovely natural sweetness, as do the dates. The riper the bananas you use, the sweeter and tastier the muffins will be! If you haven’t got fully ripened bananas but want to make these anyway, just add an extra date to the ingredients.

FYI: these are definitely freezable. The recipe makes around 20, so I saved a couple in the fridge, and froze the rest. To defrost a muffin, you can zap it in the microwave, or (preferably) let it thaw out in your fridge overnight.

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Ingredients:
*Recipe inspired and adapted from Little Grazers

1 cup plain flour 
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 ripe bananas, mashed
4 tbsp (approximately 50g) unsalted butter, softened
1 egg, beaten
3-4 tbsp full-fat milk
4 soft dates, chopped

Start by preheating your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit).

In one bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.

In another bowl, mix the mashed banana and butter until smooth. Add the egg, and then stir in the flour mix. Finally, add the milk and dates.

Spoon into a lined muffin tin, and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Let the muffins cool before devouring!

Other recipes of mine you might like:

Banana Bread
Baked Oatmeal Breakfast Goodness!