This easy baby-led weaning muffin recipe is the perfect first finger food to introduce apples, bananas, and sweet potatoes to kids from 6 months of age. They are also sugar-free, dairy-free, and egg-free, so a great vegan baby recipe to start solids.
Baby-led weaning muffins are hand-sized, perfect for babies from 6 months of age. They have a soft, moist texture that is easy to suck and munch by babies from 6 months old. They are the perfect first finger food to offer infants and introduce the stage 1 food for babies like apples, bananas, carrots, or sweet potatoes.
Baby-led weaning muffins are also made of simple, wholesome ingredients. They have no added sugar and no added salt to encourage the discovery of real food flavors by babies.
Ingredients and Substitutions
It’s super easy to make baby muffins for babies and toddlers. All you need to make these baby-led weaning muffins are 8 ingredients:
- Whole Wheat Flour or white flour or gluten-free all-purpose flour.
- Melted Coconut Oil or any vegetable oil you have at home like light olive oil, canola oil
- Ripe Banana – one medium ripe banana, peeled, mashed with a fork into a puree.
- Mashed Orange Sweet Potato Puree – You can also make muffins with pumpkin puree.
- Baking Powder – To give them a little rise.
- Unsweetened Applesauce – Or more mashed banana.
How To Make Baby-Led Weaning Mini Muffins
- First, prepare the orange sweet potato puree. There are two options. You can bake the sweet potato in the oven or microwave or steam the cubes of peeled sweet potatoes. Don’t boil sweet potatoes to make sweet potato puree. This makes the puree too wet to make baby muffins.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Cut a medium-sized sweet potato in half lengthwise. Prick the skin with a fork.
- Place the halves of sweet potatoes, flesh down on the baking tray.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the sweet potato goes through.
- Cool them down at room temperature, then scoop out the flesh and mash them into a smooth puree. Use the cooled mashed sweet potato puree in the recipe.
- For the steaming Method, Peel the sweet potato and cut it into small 1-inch cubes. Bring a saucepan with water to a high boil. Add a steaming basket on top of the saucepan with the sweet potato cubes in it. Steam until the sweet potato is soft. Remove from heat, cool down for 20 minutes, then mash with a fork into a sweet potato puree.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine mashed banana, mashed orange sweet potato puree, and applesauce.
- Then, stir the melted coconut oil into the wet ingredient mixture.
- Now, stir in the flour and baking powder until you form a smooth muffin batter.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two 12-hole mini muffin tins with coconut oil.
- Then, fill each hole up to 3/4 and bake the muffins in the center rack of the oven for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown and a pick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.
- Let the muffins cool completely on a cooling rack before serving to little ones.
Add-Ons For Older Kids
You can adapt this recipe for kids above 12 months by adding sweeteners, fruits, or chocolate chips. For example, you can add 1/3 cup of:
- fresh or frozen blueberries
- dark chocolate chips
- dried fruits like raisins, cranberries, chopped dates
- Nuts and seeds like finely chopped almonds, walnuts or pecans, or sunflower seeds
You can also replace the applesauce with real sweeteners like maple syrup or agave syrup to boost the sweetness.
Storage Instructions
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw the day before or at least 3 hours before eating, at room temperature.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are perfect baby breakfast muffins for a healthy kid breakfast, serve this muffin with plain yogurt and fruits or steamed vegetables.
They are soft, slightly firm but moist, and easy for your baby to munch. They are slightly sweet from the mashed bananas and sweet potatoes.
Yes, you can replace sweet potato puree with 1/3 cup of other fruits or veggies:
– extra mashed ripe banana
– baby pumpkin puree
– carrot puree – perfect for making baby ABC muffins
Yes, you can use this baby-led weaning recipe to make savory muffins. To do so, remove the applesauce and bananas from the recipe. Then, add 2/3 cup of extra vegetable puree like:
– 2/3 cup extra mashed sweet potato puree.
– 1/3 cup homemade pumpkin puree and 1/3 cup carrot puree.
You can also add 1/2 cup of grated hard cheese in the recipe like Edam, Emmental, or Mozzarella.
No, it’s not recommended to add salt to babies’ food. You should wait until they are 12 months old before adding sodium to babies’ food.
More Vegan Baby Food Recipes
I love to bake mini muffins for babies and toddlers. They are very handy to introduce food to babies or fill a lunchbox with healthy, fulfilling food. Below I listed more baby muffin recipe ideas for you to try:
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Baby-led Weaning Muffins
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup Sweet Potato Puree - see note to make your own
- 1 medium Mashed Ripe Bananas - 1/3 cup mashed bananas
- ¼ cup Unsweetened Applesauce
- ⅓ cup Melted Coconut Oil - or light olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 cup White Wholewheat Flour - or all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two 12-hole baby muffin trays with coconut oil. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas until smooth. Then, stir in sweet potato puree, applesauce and melted coconut oil
- Stir in baking powder and flour until it forms a consistent batter
- Fill each muffin hole up to 3/4 and bake in the center rack of the oven for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Cool on a cooling rack before eating.
Storage
- Store at room temperature for 2 days or up to 4 days in the fridge in an airtight container.
- Freeze for up to 3 months in a sealed bag or container. Thaw for 3 hours or overnight at room temperature before eating.
There were no ingredient amounts given . Don’t think mine will turn out very well the mixture got the muffins was very dry . I like the recipe can you please add amounts
It’s all in the recipe card which is right above this comment section!! Use the jump to recipe button to get there!
Love these both for my 7 month old and my 4 year old. Gently sweet from the banana and apple.
I doubled the recipe, used baked pumpkin puree instead of sweet potato, and added 1tsp baking powder per cup flour.
I made them in normal sized muffin trays and baked for 25ish minutes.
Will definitely have these on high rotation!
Nice tweaks! They are yum in larger size! Thanks for the review!
Hi
Is there a way to make these without baking powder, for my 10 month old please?
You can absolutely skip the baking powder, they simply won’t rise and be dense and more packed.
Can I use gluten free flour?
I didn’t try this option but I guess it could work it might change the texture. By experience, I noticed that gluten free flour turns vegan baking recipes a bit dense and gummy.
Great! My baby and toddler love them. I steam the sweet potato and apple together – super quick and easy.
Can I use oat flour instead? If so how much?
I didn’t try yet so I am unsure how it will turn out.
My baby has a banana allergy, is there an alternative to using banana ?
You can use same amount of unsweetened apple sauce, mashed sweet potato puree or pumpkin puree.
how much regular sized muffins would this make?
16 mini muffins turns into 10 regular size muffins
Can I use puree pouches instead of making my own purees?
It should work if the pouches are the same puree flavor.
Can I use coconut oil if I have not introduced nuts yet?
Yes sure any oil works here