Little Lincoln will be 7.5 months this week so I thought it was time I got more creative with his solid meals, as well as the fact I am starting to be able to allocate time a bit better. I whizzed up this recipe on the spot with what we had at home and realised how flexible it is to help include allergens as part of baby’s regular diet.

Babies are exposed to different allergens at different times of their solids journey, so it’s important to note this recipe contains egg, gluten and soy. Depending on what allergens you are wanting to introduce, you can play with this recipe a little - I’ll provide some suggestions at the bottom.

Makes 24 mini muffins (around 22-25g each)

Ingredients

1 x banana, mashed
100g mixed berries (I did 50g blueberries, 50g raspberries)
1 x egg (to make this vegan, substitute with 1 tablespoon chia seeds & 2 tablespoons water)
45g coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
125g soy milk
100g rolled oats
100g wholemeal spelt flour (plain flour is fine too), sifted
1 tsp baking powder

Method

Preheat oven to 160 deg C & lightly oil the muffin tray. In a jug, whisk together the egg, coconut oil, vanilla bean paste & soy milk. In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour & baking powder. Gently add the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Lightly fold through the banana and mixed berries.

Using a teaspoon, equally portion the mixture into the muffin trays. Bake for 15-20 mins, or until a skewer inserted in a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from the tray - the fruit may cause the muffins to stick a bit when warm.

Muffins can be kept in an airtight container for 2-3 days, or frozen for up to three months.

Allergen modifications

Research shows that upon introducing an allergen to baby’s diet, it is important to continually include it in their diet to reduce the chance of an allergy developing. To do so, you can modify this recipe to help you include/omit certain allergens.

if baby hasn’t had egg yet, you can substitute one tablespoon of chia seeds soaked in two tablespoons of water to create a ‘chia egg’
to include dairy, substitute coconut oil for butter or soy milk for cow’s milk
to omit soy, substitute soy milk for coconut milk
to include tree nuts, substitute 25g rolled oats fo 25g almond meal