And the obsession with banana bread baked goods continues… (sorry I’m not sorry 🤷🏻♀️).
These are not just regular banana bread muffins, though. They’re hearty banana walnut muffins, topped with an incredible cream cheese mascarpone frosting. Is there anything more fun than a muffin with frosting? It makes eating a muffin feel 10x more fancy and decadent. When I make these, I always feel like I have a special treat on hand, and they look so beautiful all dressed up.
The frosting on these is a homemade vegan mascarpone. Mascarpone is a soft cheese, so it’s not designed to be a super sweet icing. Rather, it’s meant to be a savory complement to the sweet banana muffins. If sweet icings are your thing, though, I have a few tips in the Notes section (below) for how to make that happen.
Bonus: This recipe will make slightly more frosting than what you’ll need for topping the muffins. Store the leftovers in your fridge, and slather on a warm bagel with a drizzle of honey, dip pretzels in it, or use it to top pancakes or other baked goods with. The possibilities are endless!
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Oh, my. I don’t have enough good things to say about these muffins. Elevate your weekday snack – or make a fun weekend baked good for a crowd – with these amazing savory-sweet banana bread muffins. The whipped mascarpone frosting really puts them over the top.
Ingredients
Banana Walnut Muffins:
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 cup oat flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- Pinch of sea salt
- 3 medium super-ripe bananas (the spottier and more brown, the better!)
- 3 large eggs
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup plant-based milk of choice (I used almond milk)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Vegan Cream Cheese Mascarpone:
- 1 8-oz. container Kite Hill Plain Cream Cheese
- 1/2 cup plant-based butter or margarine of choice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Juice of half a lemon
- Pinch of sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425º F. Grease a 12-count muffin tin, or line with baking cups, and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate medium mixing bowl, mash the bananas. Crack in the eggs, and whisk until well-beaten. And then add in the olive oil, maple syrup, milk, and vanilla extract. Whisk everything together until well-incorporated.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir to combine, until no flour pockets remain.
- Add in the walnuts, and stir once more.
- Spoon your batter into the muffin cups. Fill all the way to the top, or just under.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425º. Then – without turning off the oven – reduce the temperature to 350º and bake for an additional 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean and crumbly.
- While muffins are cooking, combine all mascarpone ingredients in a stand mixer, and beat until light and fluffy. Refrigerate the mixture to let firm up before frosting.
- Once the muffins are done cooking, remove them from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes in the baking tin. Then remove them and let finish cooling on a baking rack.
- Wait until muffins are fully cooled before frosting. Be as generous with the frosting as you please, and store leftovers in the fridge for up to 5-7 days. Because the muffins have a cream cheese-based frosting, they should also be refrigerated.
Notes
- If you don’t need these muffins to be gluten-free, feel free to substitute 2 cups whole wheat flour in place of the 1 cup almond meal and 1 cup oat flour.
- The initial high cooking temperature is a trick I learned from Sally’s Baking Kitchen. They allow the muffins to spring up and rise much higher than cooking them at – say- 350º for 20+ minutes. They’ll also give them a lighter, fluffier texture (and make them what I call ‘bakery-quality’ baked goods). Keep in mind – rising is all relative with gluten-free baked goods, which won’t rise as much as muffins made with a gluten-containing flour (like whole wheat).
- This frosting is not designed to be super sweet – like an icing. If you prefer a sweeter frosting, add either 1-2 tablespoons of real maple syrup, or 1 cup powdered sugar to your mascarpone ingredients, and beat in the stand mixer until light and fluffy, as directed.
- Feel free to use another brand of vegan cream cheese, if you prefer, but Kite Hill is the one I created the recipe with, and loved. Of all the vegan cream cheeses I’ve tested, this has the best texture, in my opinion.
Keywords: Healthy muffins, banana muffins, banana bread muffins, banana walnut muffins, vegan cream cheese, vegan mascarpone, healthy baked goods, gluten free baked goods, dairy free baked goods
