Banana Nut Muffin

Stayed at a friends house watching their little boy while they were away. We had so much fun! There were so many pluses that if there were any negatives it was that I was missing my family and our animals... almost all of them. ;)

One of my best friends... who is pretty much like a sister, lived just down the road. So when she wasn't working she would come up and hang out with us. We got to feel all independent. It was like living in our own place. We loved it!

Anyway... I love bananas and was very pleased to see that they had plenty in stock. Even with my love of bananas we couldn't eat enough of them before they would go bad. An it is a crime for bananas to go bad. I could have made smoothies but I wasn't sure I'd be able to drink it all. An having that go to waste is also a crime. Then I started craving muffins. I searched the kitchen and couldn't find a muffin tin anywhere. Fortunately my friend was willing to lend me one. She is the best! (I don't know if the kitchen didn't have a muffin pan or if I just didn't know where to find it... which is very possible.) Below is the recipe I found on my Nexis 7 tablet when I searched Google. Of course I took the privilege to adapt and change it! I've added it too my cooking notebook. These were amazing!

Banana Nut Muffins
Adapted From ~ BrownEyedBaker

Also From ~ Epicurious

Oven: 350

Bake: 20-25 min.

Servings: 12 muffins

Directions and Ingredients ~

In a medium to large glass mixing bowl add
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) mostly melted
(Softened butter would work as well but I hardly ever have butter softened when I want to use it.)

(I soften my butter in the oven at 170 and just keep an eye on it's progress. That is why the glass bowl. Any other microwaveable bowl would suit your purpose if you wanted to microwave the butter. Also a sauce pan could be used and butter mostly melted on the stove top.)

(If butter is completely melted just let it cool a little until your bowl isn't too how to handle.)

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar

Beat together.

1 lg. egg
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
Mix.
1 1/4 cups mashed banana (about three bananas)

(However you mash bananas will be fine. I dislike dirtying dished so I don't use our chopper if I can help it. :) My grandmother always mashed hers with the backside of a fork. I like that way best. She either used a small bowl or a cutting board when mashing bananas.)

(I broke the banana up in the batter and smashed it against the sides of the bowl with a fork.)

3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat bran or germ (optional)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt (optional)
Mix.
1 cup nuts (optional)

(The original recipe called for Macadamia nuts toasted and finely chopped. I used chopped walnuts. The original recipe says to sprinkle on top. Which I did but have decided that when making again I'll try mixing them into the batter. I also didn't use any where near a cup. I lightly pressed the sprinkled nuts into each muffin with the back of a fork. Then added the topping.)

Mix.

~Topping~ In a small bowl add...
2 Tbsp. butter softened
3 tsp. flour (I used white.)
3 tsp. brown sugar
Mix and sprinkle atop each muffin.

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Heat oven to 350. Line muffin tin with paper cups or lightly oil cups.
Divide batter between cups.
(A medium cookie scoop makes this very easy.)
Sprinkle with Topping and/or nuts. (optional)
Bake 20 to 25 minutes.
(Recommend flipping the pan half way through. Many ovens don't heat evenly so the one side of the pan will cook faster than the other.)
Let muffins cool 10 minutes... if you can. :)
Store muffins at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Enjoy!!!