I love baking! I especially love baking with healthy ingredients, free of refined sugar and flour and any GMO ingredients! I feel good feeding my family the best possible foods and taking time in the kitchen to make memories together.

Craig also always takes muffins or cookies to work to have on his coffee breaks and so it is a good thing all around. These days I have been getting my baking kick back. I bought a variety of different natural sweeteners to try instead of my original maple syrup recipes. I have been trying erythritol and stevia in my baking and have had some successes. I do still love to use maple syrup the best because it is very natural and native to our land (O Canada). Some stevia and erythritol can leave an aftertaste that tastes a little unnatural and I am not scared of sugar or calories when they come from a natural source.

This Now Real Food Sweet Substitute is made with erythritol and stevia and contains no GMO ingredients. It replaces sugar 1 to 1 in a recipe.

This recipe is an adaptation of my Blueberry Banana Muffins. I love to load all of my recipes up with as much whole grain goodness and fruits and veggies that I can, no matter what I make. This recipe is no exception. These muffins are made with whole wheat flour and sweet substitute and are loaded with bananas and mixed berries! A moist and delicious whole grain muffin!

If only I had some overripe bananas on hand, I would whip up another batch of these muffins. Sadly, my bananas are not yet ripe and we are all out of these babies, but today we did make a batch of fudgy brownies minus the walnuts and I do have a batch of granola on hand. Gotta look at the bright side! 🙂

Banana Berry Muffins {Sweetened with Stevia and Erythritol}

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 overripe bananas
• 3/4 cup sweet substitute
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups fresh or frozen mixed berries (or just blueberries or raspberries)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt in a small mixing bowl.
3. In a separate medium mixing bowl, mash the bananas until free of any lumps.
4. Add the sweet substitute, oil, applesauce, almond milk and vanilla and stir until smooth.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the medium mixing bowl along with the berries and stir until just mixed, careful not to over mix the batter.
6. Spoon into muffin liners, filling them 3/4 of the way full.
7. Bake for 16-20 minutes. Muffins are ready when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I hope that you enjoy this recipe!

Have you ever experimented with natural sugar substitutes? What is your favorite sweetener to use?

I love using stevia these days to sweeten my beverages (toffee, dark chocolate and french vanilla stevia are great in coffee) and we also love Zevia and Zero Vitamin Water sweetened with erythritol and stevia. I also like to make my own 1-minute sugar-free jam using a few drops of lemon or original stevia mixed with mashed fresh raspberries or blackberries. I think it is nice to have a variety, but I do still mostly love pure maple syrup and organic brown sugar is great in homemade cinnamon buns! I find that the alcohol they add to the flavored stevia is what turns me off, but the alcohol-free one is nice.