Vegan Toaster Oven Muffins - Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip

We recently moved to Tokyo, Japan from Los Angeles, and were shocked to discover that where the oven should be is a fish grill. We are vegan and don't eat fish, so I tried making toast and grilling veggies. Needless to say, I caused a couple of fires and filled our small living area up with smoke.

My 7-year-old son and I love baking together so I looked into portable ovens, but our kitchen is tiny and sadly doesn't have the space, so we purchased the next best thing, a toaster oven. I've never owned a toaster oven let alone tried to bake in one, so my son and I have been doing a lot of experimenting.

After some trial and error, we managed to make muffins that taste delicious. It wasn't easy, especially because we couldn't find a muffin pan small enough to fit in our toaster oven and vegan ingredients aren't easy to come by in Japan. What the muffins lack in being perfect muffin-shaped, they make up for in deliciousness.

We hope you enjoy this recipe, especially if you are oven challenged like us!

Step 1: Summary

Easy and delicious mini vegan peanut butter, banana chocolate chip muffins.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 8-10 minutes (depends on your toaster oven) x 3 batches = 24 minutes
Total time: 34 minutes

Author: Tara Tiger Brown and Ripley Bonner
Cuisine: Vegan
Makes: 18 mini muffins

Step 2: ​Alternative to Non-dairy Yogurt

I can't find non-dairy yogurt in Tokyo so I made a vegan version of buttermilk:

• 1 tsp (5 mL) lemon juice
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) non-dairy milk

Stir and let stand for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (150 mL) granulated sugar (I used beet sugar and worked great)
• 3 tbsp (45 mL) vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp (45 mL) peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
• 1 banana mashed
• 1 egg replacer (I use Bob's Red Mill). With the banana, you can get away without using this, but I haven't tried. Other egg substitutes can be found here.
• 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) all-purpose baking flour
• 3/4 tsp (4 mL) baking powder
• 3/4 tsp (4 mL) baking soda
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) non-dairy yogurt (or soured non-dairy milk*)
• 3 tbsp (45 mL) dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips

Step 4: Instructions

1. We are using a toaster oven, so pre-heating is not necessary. Spray 6 mini muffin cups with vegetable oil spray or line with paper liners. We placed the muffin liners on a mini cake pan because we couldn't find a mini muffin pan that would fit in our toaster oven.
2. Prepare non-dairy vegan yogurt alternative (optional if you don't have yogurt).
3. Prepare egg replacer in a medium-sized bowl.
4. Add sugar, oil, peanut butter, mashed banana, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
5. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
6. Add to batter and mix until blended.
7. Stir in yogurt (or alternative) and chocolate chips.
8. Fill muffin cups half full.
9. Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees F (190 C) or until tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry. Take out of the toaster oven and let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then take out of the pan and repeat starting at step 8. We made about 18 muffins so it took us a few batches to bake all of our muffins.
10. We eat all of the muffins within 3 or 4 days, so I don't know how they keep past that at room temperature. I've also never frozen them, but I've heard that you can freeze muffins for about one month. :)