Mini Banana Nutella Muffins

Mini muffins are a great snack to have on hand. My mini banana Nutella muffins are decadent and make for a great little baked treat to enjoy, and they are lighter than they look: two very ripe bananas, applesauce in place of most of the fat, a little cinnamon, and a quarter teaspoon of Nutella swirled into the top of every cup. Each one is 2 WW Points.

These muffins actually bake up nicely and don’t seem to “melt”. You would think a swirl that small would sink into the batter and vanish, but it stays right where you put it. The Nutella swirl on top makes them feel like they are quite the indulgence, I mean how can you not love Nutella!

One batch makes 24 mini banana Nutella muffins, start to finish in under half an hour. If you bake a lot of these, the rest of my muffin recipes are worth a scroll.

Why you’ll love these mini banana Nutella muffins

• Real Nutella, small amounts. Two tablespoons spread across 24 muffins is a quarter teaspoon each. That is enough for a proper swirl, enough to taste decadent, and it is why these land at 2 Points.
• Ripe bananas do the sweetening. There is only a quarter cup of sugar in the whole batch. The bananas carry the rest.
• Applesauce instead of butter or oil. A quarter cup of unsweetened applesauce keeps them moist without the fat.
• A little baked treat, already portioned. A mini muffin is a two-bite snack. One with coffee, two in a lunch bag, and the batch lasts.
• Fast. Fifteen minutes of mixing, twelve in the oven.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 27 minutes

Servings: 24

Serving Size: 1 mini muffin

2 WW Points Per Serving. You can view the recipe on the WW App here. (WW login required.)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 very ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp Nutella

The bananas need to be properly ripe. Spotty, soft, the ones you would not want to eat plain. They mash in smoothly and they are doing most of the sweetening here. A firm yellow banana leaves you with lumps and a flat, floury muffin.

Unsweetened applesauce is the swap that matters. It stands in for butter or oil and keeps the crumb soft. Buy the unsweetened kind, not the snack cups with sugar in them.

Use real Nutella. Two tablespoons across 24 muffins is not much, so let it be the good stuff. Another chocolate hazelnut spread works if that is what is in the cupboard, though it changes the points, so check yours in the app.

How to make mini banana Nutella muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 24 cup mini muffin pan and set it aside.
2. Beat the wet ingredients. Using an electric mixer, beat the bananas, egg, sugar, applesauce and vanilla together until the bananas have broken down.
3. Stir in the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and stir until just combined. The batter will be thick, more like a soft dough than a pourable batter. That is correct.
4. Fill the pan and top each one. Divide the batter between all 24 cups, then top each with 1/4 tsp of Nutella.

5. Swirl. Using a toothpick, swirl the Nutella through the top of each muffin. The batter is thick and this may seem tricky, so just do your best. A figure eight through the top is plenty, and the swirls that look messiest in the pan often bake up the prettiest.

6. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the tops spring back and a toothpick comes out clean of batter. The swirl bakes right where you left it, so expect Nutella on the toothpick if you go through one.
7. Cool in the pan for a few minutes, then lift them out.

Variations and substitutions

• Add mini chocolate chips. A tablespoon stirred through the batter turns these into a banana chocolate chip muffin with a Nutella top.
• Swap the cinnamon for nutmeg or pumpkin spice, or use both. The half teaspoon of spice is there for warmth, not to be the star.
• Peanut butter instead of Nutella. Same quarter teaspoon, same swirl, completely different muffin.

Every one of those swaps changes the points, so run yours through the app before you count them.

Tips and tricks

• Measure the Nutella properly. A quarter teaspoon looks tiny in the spoon and generous on the muffin. Eyeballing it is how a 2 Point muffin quietly stops being a 2 Point muffin.
• Warm the Nutella for five seconds if it is stiff. It swirls far more easily and tears up less batter.
• Do not overmix the batter. Stir only until the flour disappears. Overworked muffin batter bakes tough.
• Watch them from 12 minutes. Minis go from done to dry in about two minutes, and there is no fat here to hide it.

Storing and reheating

These keep best in the fridge in an airtight container, which is what makes them such a good snack to have on hand. Take one out a few minutes ahead, or give it five seconds in the microwave, and the Nutella softens right back up.

More banana bakes to try

If you have more ripe bananas than muffin pans, my banana Nutella loaf is the same flavors in slice form, and my banana Nutella donuts wear the Nutella as a topping instead of swirling it in. For something plainer and heartier, my banana bran muffins use up ripe bananas too. And while the mini pan is out, my mini peanut butter chocolate chip muffins are the other little muffin I make on repeat.