Recipe: Sneak some health into your family’s diet with these apple, banana and carrot muffins

Quick and easy to bake, these apple, banana and carrot muffins are perfect to pop inside little one’s lunches.

Chef Lou Robbie went viral when she shared her recipe for apple, banana and carrot muffins. A combination that sounds like it shouldn’t be half as tasty as it is, Lou says that they’re one of her “go-to bakes when I need to fill lunchboxes, use up overripe bananas, or just want to make sure there’s a stash of wholesome snacks ready to go in the freezer”.

If you want to try it out for yourself take a look at the recipe below.

Ingredients

• 200g The Pantry Self-Raising Flour
• 50g Kavanagh’s Instant Oats
• 80g The Pantry Caster Sugar or sugar alternative
• ½ tsp The Pantry Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Ready, Set, Cook Ground Cinnamon
• 100g Kilkeely Gold Butter, melted and cooled
• 100ml Clonbawn Fresh Milk
• 2 Healy’s Farm Fresh Eggs
• 1 Nature’s Pick Banana, mashed
• 1 Nature’s Pick Apple, grated
• 1 small Nature’s Pick Carrot, grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan) and line or grease a muffin tin.
2. In a large bowl, combine the self-raising flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.
3. In a jug, whisk together the melted butter, milk and eggs until well combined.
4. Add the grated apple, mashed banana and grated carrot to the dry ingredients and mix gently with a fork.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
6. Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin cases.
7. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until golden on top and cooked through.
8. Test with a cocktail stick – if it comes out clean, the muffins are ready.

Storage Tips

• Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
• To freeze: Allow the muffins to cool completely, then place them in a labelled zip-lock bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in an airtight container, ready to pop into the lunchbox the next morning.