Banana Muffin Fail

Today, something strange happened.  I experienced a baking systems failure.  The majority of my baking experimentation produces something of the "intoxicatingly" marvelous.  Not today.  I found this recipe for Banana Bread Protein Muffins online, and I thought it sounded like a tasty, carb-satiating way to add a little more protein to snack time.  Unfortunately, I was less than impressed with the result.  They looked great when I opened the oven but deflated IMMEDIATELY.  What the hell?  And the center was done but dense and mushy, far from the fluffy muffin I had imagined.

Droopy muffins....

.... with a dense center.

My roommate and I split the first one.  I can't say that I'm a fan.  Samantha liked them though (which is great because she has 11 more to look forward to!).  Really, their flavor is good, but for me, the texture leaves much to be desired.  I haven't entirely given up hope on this recipe yet.  Here are my three hypotheses of what went wrong:

1) I used the wrong oats.  The recipe called for oats instead of flour, and the whole batter gets processed in the bender. We only had steel-cut oats in the kitchen, which I don't know much about.  Maybe rolled oats would keep a better structure.

2) My banana was too ripe.  I used a brown banana that Samantha had stashed in the freezer for such an occasion.  When thawed, it was almost too soft to handle.  Maybe a fresher, slightly less ripe banana would prevent the dense texture.

3) This recipe is crap.  There is a fundamental flaw somewhere in the methods and materials as described by the author.  Maybe I should just stick to drunken cupcakes.

I'll probably give this recipe another go at some point, but all in all, the batch I have is edible.  Samantha and I joked that the divot on top will make a good vessel for peanut butter.  Peanut butter always makes life better.