Banana Nut Muffins

Once again I ended up with a bunch of leftover bananas (sigh) at the end of the week.  I know how good bananas are for you, but I find myself having a hard time eating them and then they go bad and the skin turns dark and I lose my banana appetite then.  Excuses, excuses, excuses.  Put them in bread or muffins though, and I eat the whole bunch.

Rather than make the same recipe twice, I took my recipe for Blueberry Banana Bread and combined it with this recipe.  I have not yet mastered the science of baking powder/baking soda so I often have to use other recipes as my guides.  I used one large muffin tin for 6 muffins, and 3 spaces in a regular size muffin tin.  If I made this again, I would just put a little more mix in each of the 6 muffins.

If this is your first visit to my blog, then skip to the recipe. 🙂  Otherwise, you may or may not have noticed some changes to my blog’s appearance.  Traffic has been steadily increasing here, so I felt I needed to amp up look a little.  I will probably change it 77 times before I feel satisfied – thank you in advance for your patience.  I am open to comments about what you like/don’t like regarding how the blog looks.

Banana Nut Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 4 ripe bananas
• 1 cup walnuts, separated into 2 1/2 cups

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly butter your muffin tin.

2.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork and set aside.

4. Add the other 2 bananas and the brown sugar to a mixing bowl and whip with an electric mixer approximately 3 minutes.

5. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat.

6. Slowly mix in the set aside dry ingredients, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice until just mixed.

7. Fold in a 1/2 cup of walnuts and the remaining mashed bananas with a rubber spatula.

8. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins until 3/4 full.

9. Put in oven and bake for 5 minutes, then remove.

10. Sprinkle remaining nuts over partly cooked batter and return to oven.

11. Bake approximately 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.  Let cool before removing from muffin pan.

And with that, I will be trying to eat all of my bananas from here on out.