Banana, Squash, and Carrot Muffins

These muffins were originally called Toddler Muffins, but I find this more descriptive, because “toddler muffins” sounds to me like one of those recipes that you make with leftover baby cereal, and I never liked those. This calls for a jar of baby food, squash purée to be more specific: you could buy a jar and not have any leftovers, or you could water down a bit of homemade squash purée, or go with something similar like sweet potato or pumpkin (same goes for the grated carrot, which you could substitute with either of those, grated as well). For the spices, I used ¼ teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. I also rewrote the recipe a bit to start with the dry ingredients.

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup oat bran
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (see note above)
½ tsp. salt
½ cup lactose-free butter or margarine, softened
½ cup brown sugar
2 large bananas, mashed
1 (4.5-oz.) jar of squash purée for babies
2 carrots, grated
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 °F. Grease 12 standard muffin cups.

Whisk together the flour, oat bran, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in the mashed bananas, squash, carrots, and eggs. Stir in the dry ingredients. Spoon the batter equally into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Store at room temperature for up to two days, or freeze.