I love a fad and this week’s is using oats in absolutely everything. These super-quick-to-prepare muffins are packed with them (whizzed up to flour) and these, along with the bananas, make them pleasingly substantial. You could absolutely miss out the chocolate chips and sugar – the bananas make it sweet enough, and I can’t see any reason why you couldn’t use coconut oil instead of butter, if the fancy took you. My little badgers are repulsed by anything coconut, the philistines, and every attempt to sneak it in – after buying a bulk quantity –  have been quickly rumbled.

I have been dispensing these as breakfast and breaktime treats – if you’re the sort who wouldn’t dream of choc at brekkie, try not to think too poorly of me. Needs must, sometimes.

Those mornings I work are bedlam. Operating the toaster and finding suitable preserves for topping it seems akin in complexity to rustling up a quick croquembouche before leaving the house at 7am, so having a couple of these to hand to shove into open mouths as I dash past, trying to locate my lanyard and car keys is a blessing.

Ingredients (makes 12-18 muffins)

• 250g oats (whizzed to flour in a blender)
• 3 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 100 ml sunflower oil/100g melted butter
• 1 egg
• 40g sugar (you could miss this out)
• 150g milk
• 3 mashed bananas
• 70g chocolate chips (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and put cupcake cases into a muffin tin. You will need 12-18, depending on the size. If needs be, pop the remainder of the mixture into the fridge whilst the first batch bakes.
2. Mix together the oat flour, the baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a jug, thoroughly mix together the oil/melted butter, egg, sugar (if using), milk and mashed bananas.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together as little as you can to combine, so that no flour is visible. The mixture will be – indeed, should be – lumpy.
5. Dispense into your cake cases – I use an ice cream scoop – filling each about 2/3 full.
6. Put into the oven, baking for approx 20 mins – when the tops spring back when pressed lightly, they are done.

Muffins don’t last brilliantly and go stale quickly, but putting them into a sandwich bag in the freezer works well and they’ll last there for a couple of months.

If you put one, frozen, into a snackbox at breakfast time, it should be ready for consumption by breaktime.