It’s pretty well agreed now that the amount of sugar we are consuming in modern western society isn’t doing us any good.
So to cut the sugar levels a bit further, try making your own cakes and muffins, you can almost always drastically reduce the sugar content without doing much harm to the flavour at all. Especially with muffins, you can create an illusion of sweetness by sprinkling a tiny bit of sugar or cinnamon-sugar mix on the surface of quite low-sugar mixes
Here is a delicious Lemon Banana Muffin Recipe that’s very light in sugar indeed.
Lemon Banana Muffins Recipe
Lemon Banana Muffins
These are light and not too sweet, very easy to make, and are a great way to use up those bananas that are starting to look a bit tired and spotty! They are particularly nice fresh out of the oven, with a bit of butter…
Ingredients
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Ripe bananas Mashed with a fork
- 1 Small lemon Juice and grated rind
- 2 Tbsp Plain think yoghurt Greek style is best
- 50 g Butter Melted
- 1/4 cup Sugar Raw sugar works best, but white will do
- 1 1/2 cups Flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1-2 Tbsp Cinnamon-sugar mix This is for sprinkling on top
Instructions
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Lightly oil a muffin tin and preheat the oven to 210°C. The recipe will make 10 to 12 muffins.
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Combine eggs, bananas, lemon rind and juice, yoghurt, melted butter and sugar in a bowl and whisk together.
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Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix well.
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Fill the muffin tins about two-thirds full and sprinkle the top of each muffin with a little cinnamon and sugar mixed together.
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Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown and firm.
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Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely (if you don’t eat them immediately...). These freeze well and thaw quickly and efficiently in the microwave.
How much sugar?!
Thanks for your feedback! It looks like one of the ingredients dropped off when we switched to the new recipe template. It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes. Enjoy! — Kiwi Families
There’s no sugar listed in the ingredients list, but it’s mentioned in the instructions. How much would you suggest?
It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes.
No sugar listed in ingredients!!
It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes.
You say to mix in the sugar but there is no sugar listed in the ingredients other than the cinnamon sugar mixture for sprinkling on top. I did make it as written and hubby really liked them…really low sugar!
It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes.
Step 2 says to add sugar, but there’s no sugar in the ingredients list…
It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes.
How much sugar?
It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes.
I used this recipe as a base for lemon banana muffins. I used la Molisana Semola Rimacinata Di Grano Duro flour (rather than standard white flour) and added about 1/2 a cup of brown sugar in the batter. I omitted the yoghurt. I added the juice and rind of a large lemon. While pouring the batter two-thirds full into muffin tins, I sprinkled in small amounts of cinammon sugar, then stirred lightly. I then filled the rest of the muffin tins with batter, poured droplets of freshly-squeezed lemon, additional lemon rind and topped off each muffin with more cinammon sugar.… Read more »
Thanks for the feedback. I think that’s the same as what we call Durum wheat? Anyway, glad to know it turned out OK. Increasing the sugar is fine too, this recipe just tries to reduce down the sweetness a bit for a healthier option. Glad you liked them! — Kiwi Families
It says add sugar to the banana mixture but there is no sugar in the ingredients list
It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes.
mix the sugar .. but no amount of sugar in the recipe..
It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes.
The instructions say to add sugar but there is no quantity of sugar written in the ingredients.
It should have 1/4 cup raw sugar whisked in with the batter. Then a little more sprinkled on top with cinnamon. The sprinkle gives them a sweet crunchy topping, so you can reduce the sugar by quite a lot in the recipe. You can go up to 1/2 cup if you’re used to a sweeter muffin. But keeping the sugar quantity down makes these a great option for kids lunchboxes.