Banana Muffins

Have any old bananas around?

I love having bananas around that are too soft and over-ripe to eat plain.

They work great for smashing and making lots of treats and goodies.

These banana muffins taste great and don't take much time in making any time for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Flour
1/3 cup of Sugar
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1 beaten Egg
1/2 cup Milk
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
3/4 cup mashed Bananas
1/2 cup Chopped Nuts (optional)
1 recipe Streusel Topping (optional)

directions:
1. These makes 12 to 14 2 1/2- inch muffins. Grease your muffin tin or line it 
    with paper baking cups and set aside.
2. In a bowl combine your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and 
    cinnamon. Stir in your mashed bananas and nuts into your flour mixture. 
    Make a well in the center and set this aside.
3. In another bowl combine your egg, milk, and oil. Add this egg mixture all at 
    once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened.
4. Spoon your batter into the muffin cups. Fill each 2/3 full. If you want, 
    sprinkle your streusel topping over the muffin batter cups now. 
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes depending how hot your oven 
    bakes. Remove them when they are lightly golden brown or when a 
    toothpick is placed inside and it comes out clean. 
6. Cool in the muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

Streusel-Nut Topping
In a small bowl combine 1/4 packed brown sugar and 3 Tbsp. of Flour. Using a pastry blender, cut in 2 Tbsp. of Butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts. 

*Note: These are great! Just remember not to over mix your batter. If you over mix muffin batter your muffins may be tough, bake unevenly, have tunnels inside or come out with peaked tops. 

Under-mixing your batter can also affect your muffins. You have to develop some gluten when mixing, otherwise there's nothing to trap the gas bubbles and the muffins will just deflate before they get nay rise and be flat. You need to get all the dry ingredients wet. 

I have learned that a rubber spatula works best for me. You just make sure everything is folded in and mixed together and the rubber spatula helps in not over mixing; making your final muffins come out nice and round. 

Recipe Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook