Skip to main content

Banana Chocolate Lactation Muffins

You'd never know the magical powers of this unsuspectingly delicious muffin.

I'm still not sure whether there's any statistically significant benefit of lactation cookies/muffins, or whether they're just an excuse for women to eat baked goods in their first weeks of motherhood. But I'm willing to keep eating these muffins either way.

I've tried a number of different varieties in the past few weeks: really delicious cookies (too much calorie consumption while being stuck at home all day), really delicious muffins (same deal, and they didn't have as much of the beneficial ingredients as I wished they did), really disgusting healthy cookies (chock full of the healthy stuff but it's a stretch to call them "cookies"), really REALLY disgusting oatmeal (it went into the garbage uneaten), and finally, these muffins. These are the winners... lots of galactagogues, not too many calories, and just the right level of decadence such that I look forward to eating them without being tempted to eat the whole batch in one sitting.

The problem ingredient in these lactation foods is brewer's yeast. It's really gross. That's what ruined the oatmeal. So the trick is masking the brewer's yeast taste (and aftertaste) without adding gobs of sugar. Banana helps with that.

I started with this recipe from Yea Yea Pueblo. I slightly decreased the amount of brewer's yeast (out of fear after the oatmeal incident), increased the amount of flax seed, replaced most of the butter with applesauce, decreased the amount of sugar, swapped the sugar for brown sugar, increased the amount of oats, and swapped half of the flour for oat bran. It should be noted that I barely tasted anything from the brewers yeast, so I think it would be safe to go up to 6 tb next time.

If I can muster up the energy to bake ever again (maybe when Miles is 5 and I don't need them anymore?), I'd love to make these again. More likely, I'll hang onto this recipe so I can make them for someone else when I don't have a new infant of my own.


The Recipe:
8 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 c applesauce
2 tb butter, melted
1 1/2 c brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c oat bran
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
5 tb brewers yeast
8 tb flax seeds, ground
1 1/2 c oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c dark chocolate chips
  • Mix wet ingredients, then incorporate dry ingredients
  • Pour into muffin tins and bake at 350 for 25 minutes

The Verdict:
Overall grade: A-
Overall reason: Yummy, healthy, and no brewers yeast aftertaste
Time to prepare: Ask me again when I'm not taking care of a baby at the same time.
Husband quote: "Can I have one, or will I start lactating?"



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kitchen renovation!

BEFORE: AFTER: Still to come: a beautiful new induction range and some wood shelving on the left side, above the backsplash. And maybe the shelving unit on the wall facing the cabinets should be green, but we're going to live with a while before making that decision.
2 comments
Read more

Adzuki Beans with Black Rice

I hope I don't turn any readers away by featuring cilantro in my first photo. My current food obsession is black rice. I was first introduced to it at  Sushi Pure . It's purple when cooked, and I was completely smitten when purple sushi arrived at our table. I mean, purple sushi! It was like my birthday or something. Actually, it might have been my birthday, because I pretty much always have sushi on my birthday, but anyway. It's kind of sweet and has this great chewy texture. When I learned  how healthy it is , my crush evolved to full-out love. Sushi Pure's Spicy Tuna Roll (photo from FoodSpotting.com) In my ongoing research for ingredients that are low in calories but high in nutrition, adzuki (also spelled azuki) beans came up. I learned that these are the sweet red beans used in Japanese desserts, including red bean ice cream, which I've been obsessed with since I was a kid. But since turning them into ice cream probably negates the health benef
2 comments
Read more

Cambodian Lemongrass Stir-Fry

  I recommend going heavy on the peanuts I recently finally branched out and tried something new at  Angkor Cambodian Restaurant , and now I'll never branch out ever again because my new favorite dish is too good. They call it Cha Krung, though I've seen a lot of other spellings in my attempt to find recipes. It's a lemongrass stir-fry and they do it with green beans, carrot, onion, and jalapeno, with peanuts on top. The peanuts are amazing in this, but I also really love the way they stir-fry the jalapeno as a vegetable, by removing the seeds and veins and slicing it thin. In my version above I used what I had, which was broccoli, eggplant from the garden, thai chilies instead of the jalapeno (but I'm going to grow jalapenos next year for this purpose), and fresh basil since I found a lot of recipes calling for it. And tofu, though it sounds like chicken is most traditional. I was a bit discouraged when researching recipes because I would need to acquire fresh lemongra
Post a Comment
Read more