Spiced Date & Walnut Muffins

A couple of months ago I shared a recipe for Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins and gushed about how delicious, satisfying and healthy they are. While I still LOVE (and regularly make) the PB&J muffins, these Spiced Date & Walnut Muffins have become both my and Marc’s go to for a quick and healthy, grab & go breakfast. Made from the same hearty base as the PB&J muffins, these delicious little bundles of breakfast goodness are also made with whole grain oats, bananas and honey.
Which means you can have more than one at a time and feel totally OK about it!
While I’ll be been making these year round I think that they are the perfect fall muffin. There is just something about the combination of orange and warm spices that is very reminiscent of fall and honestly, they are the prefect thing to whip up on a brisk fall Sunday morning!

I actually made these muffins for my brother when he was visiting and again for my mother in law on her visit…both asked me to make another batch just so they could a)watch and learn and b)because we all loved them so much they didn’t last more than a couple days!
Here’s how you make them…

Spiced Date & Walnut Muffins:

Recipe makes 1 dozen muffins

Ingredients:
– 1/2 cup almond milk
– 1/4 cup honey
– 2 ripe banana, mashed
– zest and juice from 1 orange (or about 1/3 cup orange juice)
– 2 large eggs
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 2 cup oat flour (you can buy oat flour or you can simply blend oats in a food processor or high powered blender)
– 1 cup oats
– 1 cup pitted dates, roughly chopped
– 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
– 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
– 1/2 teaspoon all spice
– 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 3 tablespoons raw sugar (for the tops of the muffins)

Directions:
– Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a muffin tin. I spray the tin with coconut-oil spray or you can use muffin cups.
– In a large bowl, combine all the wet ingredients. Mix well.
– Add the dates and walnuts and the remaining dry ingredients and mix until combined. The batter should be the consistency of cake batter
– Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter evenly in the muffin tin.
– Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with raw sugar.
– Bake for 15 minutes, let cool on a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.