Diabetic-Friendly Banana Muffins with Mini Chocolate Chips

Sadly to say, I know many people who are diabetic. Diabetes has become such an epidemic in many different populations. In fact, diabetes has become a very popular type of conditions on not only older adults but for children as well. There are many different causes of diabetes from genetics, to lifestyles. Once you have diabetes, it is very difficult to regulate your blood sugar and there are many limitations on what you eat. When you already have the chronic condition, the only thing that you can do is to manage it well so that the condition will not get worse.

What's unfortunate about the condition is that the limitation, that can be difficult, especially for those who are new to the condition. But, what's great about today's world is that there are so many resources available for diabetic individuals!

I got the idea for this recipe from the Splenda website. Splenda is made up of Sucralose which is a non-caloric sweetener that many people who are diabetic use as an artificial sweetener. Although I am not a big fan of artificial sweeteners, sometimes the use is beneficial for those who are diabetic.
Splenda has a recipe index and it has many different types of recipes using the product. I used their Banana Mini Chip Muffins recipe.

Servings: 12 regular-sized muffins

About 14g sugar for 12 muffins. 
Now when I say that there's sugar in the product, you might think "but this is a diabetic-friendly muffin". Sugar is in everything - including flour, applesauce, bananas chocolate chips, soy milk, etc. When you are diabetic, you will need to remember that these natural foods also contains sugar.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour 
• 2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (my changes - and a secret ingredient!)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt  
• 2/3 cups sucralose (aka Splenda) 
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 unsweetened applesauce (4oz container) (my changes) 
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (my changes) 
• 1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk 
• 1 egg 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 ripe bananas  (my changes) 
• 1/2 mini chocolate chips (my changes) 

Instructions: 

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sucralose, and ground cinnamon.
• In a large bowl, mix the egg, vegetable oil, apple sauce, unsweetened soy milk, and vanilla extract. 
• In about 3 increments, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 
• Mash the 2 bananas and then mix it into the large bowl with the combination of wet and dry ingredients. (I used a fork to mash my bananas! 
• Using a rubber spatula, mix in the mini chocolate chips. 
• Bake for 20 minutes, and use a toothpick to make sure that the muffins are baked completely. 
• Use a cooling rack to cool the muffins and enjoy! 

Fun fact - when you bake with sucralose, it's difficult to "dome" the muffin or cupcake that you are baking. But, if you add some baking soda, it helps "dome" the muffin! Who knew!

I really like giving my diabetic friends these muffins because I can confidently say how much sugar it contains and it's completely up to them whether they want to eat a whole muffin or half a muffin depending on their blood sugar level.

Many times, my non-diabetic friends are skeptical about me using sucralose which is ok - I don't expect my non-diabetic friends to like this type of muffins; however, I thought that it would be a helpful recipe for those who have diabetes or if you know someone who has diet restrictions. I believe that just because you're diabetic, it doesn't mean that you have to eliminate your favorite food completely (:

With that being said, thank you for stopping by!
From my kitchen to yours, Happy Baking!

Smiles,
Mei