Banana Bread – Yes!
Sliced Banana on top of Frosted Flakes – Yes!
Banana Muffins – Yes!
A peeled banana eaten fresh – Um…no thanks.
I’ve never been a big fan of eating a banana just to eat it. However, put that banana in a muffin or in some bread and I’m happy to make friends with that food item! When I was pregnant with my first child, I didn’t have many cravings. The one MAJOR craving I had was bananas! I ate so many of them during my pregnancy I thought we should buy stock in bananas. (Can you buy stock in bananas?) After our second child transitioned to solid foods, we were buying multiple bunches of bananas each week, and my desire to buy stock in bananas has returned.
It is inevitable that when I’m at the store, I will grab a bunch of bananas because it is imperative we keep enough bananas at the perfect level of ripeness on hand. Of course, time will get away from us and I often find myself with bananas that have surpassed their prime, and I am left wondering whether I should throw them away and ride the guilt train, if I should bake immediately to use them up, or if I should pop them in the freezer for a rainy day.
Pro Tip: Did you know you can freeze bananas?
When my bananas have hit the point of no return and I’m not in the mood to pull out my baking supplies I freeze those suckers. Simply peel them, mash them up, and pop them into a freezer bag. And LABEL IT. I promise you that you do not want to play the, “What in the world is this?” game with an unknown bag of banana goo. Also, I always make sure to label the bag with the number of bananas I have mashed, since most recipes call for a number, verses a measuring cup amount.
Recently we went away for the weekend and left four perfectly good bananas on our fruit plate. When we returned home, those girls were done. The next morning I decided to let the guilt train pass my stop, and instead I boarded the, “I’m a great mom and I’m going to bake with my six-year-old before I’ve had my coffee” train! My daughter wanted to make muffins, not bread. I mean, let’s be honest, we all know that muffins are just cupcakes without their make-up on, hence making muffins way cooler than bread. I have a few go-to banana bread recipes, but I don’t typically have a go-to banana MUFFIN recipe. UNTIL NOW.
I did a quick google search, and found one. And mamas, it is a good one!
Let me tell you what I loved about this recipe:
- The recipe is quick (15 minutes to get the batter together) and NOT complicated.
- I had everything I needed for the recipe on hand. The recipe didn’t call for anything random that I would ONLY use for that one recipe.
- They have a crumble topping, and I LOVE that on a muffin.
- They taste DELICIOUS!
Banana Crumb Muffins
(Big shout out to Lisa Kreft, the woman who posted this on allrecipes.com. That lady knows her way around a muffin.)
Ingredients
Muffins:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
Crumb Topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all- purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
(We lined ours with muffin papers and they worked great! Also, we made 12 muffins. The recipe said 10, but I just evenly distributed the batter between twelve muffin papers and the muffin size was still good.) - In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
(The recipe calls for 3 bananas. I actually used 4 because I had 4 to use up. It didn’t impact the recipe negatively to use that extra banana. Additionally, I utilize a scoop like this one for perfectly uniform muffins!) - In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
(CONFESSION: I accidentally melted my 1 tablespoon of butter, and mixed it into my other ingredients because I was on autopilot from melting the butter for the muffins. It worked FINE, and saved me the time from “cutting in” that 1 tablespoon of butter. I will always melt it, and not cut in, now that I know it works and they turned out great.) - Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.
(I have no commentary on this. Just bake your muffins. Don’t burn them. Set a timer, because God knows you will get distracted by a three-year-old who MUST have his train track built perfectly RIGHT NOW or the world will end.)
When our muffins were done baking, we pulled them out and all of us had one while it was still warm. This recipe makes a muffin that is fluffy, flavorful, and the crumb topping is the cherry on top. Eating the muffin while it is still warm is highly recommended by 3 out of 4 members of my household.
If you have some bananas in your house, I encourage you to let those babies rot! Well, at least until they were soft enough to easily mush for some of these Banana Crumb Muffins. I don’t think you will regret it.
