Five Banana Muffins

I like winter.

I love wearing my tuque.

I enjoy shoveling early in the morning before it's light out.

But, for some reason, I enjoy seeing the bright sun on our faces and warmth of this picture right now.

Also, in this picture, we are drinking great coffee which goes great with these muffins.

If you frequently have bananas that are overripe, this recipe a great way to use them up.

I cut it out of a newspaper at least ten years ago and it is still my go to banana muffin.

You, kind of, can't make a mistake with these.

I have morphed these in so many ways and they always turn out.  Try adding espresso powder, coconut, pecans, nutmeg or even substitute pumpkin puree for some of the banana.

The recipe calls for a small amount of sugar but I always leave it out because I think the bananas make them sweet enough.

Five Banana Muffins

(yields 24 muffins)

2 C AP flour (or a combo of 1 C whole wheat or spelt and 1 C AP)

1/4 C sugar (optional)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

pinch of salt

1/2-1 C chocolate chips (or nuts)

5 bananas, mashed

1/2 C butter, melted

1/4-1/2 C yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350.

Line muffin tin with papers or grease.

In a large bowl (or stand mixer) combine bananas, butter, yogurt and eggs.  

Add chocolate.

In another bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add to flour mixture to banana mixture.

Stir gently without over mixing.

Pour into muffin cups.  I fill them about half full and that usually makes 24 muffins.

Bake 18 mins

 or until toothpick insterted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

(You can also make this into a loaf but increase baking time to 50 mins.)

Banana Blueberry Coconut Muffins

I have been eaten out of house and muffin.

Somehow, we've managed to eat 24 muffins in the last 24 hours.

So, I found my self making muffins again this afternoon.

Today's muffins needed to have banana in them because of an over ripe bunch I had to use up.

These are much less sweet than yesterday's Blueberry Lemon Muffins and use whole wheat flour.

Originally, this recipe calls for coconut oil but melted butter works too.

By all means, use coconut oil, if you can, it will give them even more rich coconut flavour.

If you double the recipe, like I did, you will get 24 muffins or 12 large and 24 mini. (Reduce heat to 325 and cook for 15 minutes for mini muffins.)


Banana Blueberry Coconut Muffins
(adapted slightly from cookieandkate.com)


3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used rye)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil or butter, melted
1 cup ripe banana, mashed
1/4 cup honey
1 large egg, preferably at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, divided
1 tablespoon turbinado (raw) sugar

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Grease a muffin tin or line the tin with muffin liners (I also spray liners with no stick spray).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Stir in 1/2 cup shredded coconut.

In a separate, medium bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, mashed banana, honey, egg and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Stir in berries.

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, then sprinkle the muffin tops with the remaining 1/4 cup coconut (about 1 to 2 teaspoons each). Top with a very light sprinkle of raw sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Banana Almond Espresso Delight

This morning I felt like a blender juice and a coffee and this is what I came up with.

It's almost as good as having a delicious pastry and a coffee.

Jim has a banana with peanut butter on it every morning so I can't wait for him to try this.

He'll love it.

Banana Almond Espresso Juice
(adapted from Loveandlemons.com)

1/2 - 3/4 C chocolate almond milk
1 frozen banana (I chopped up and froze a few bananas the night before)
1/4 C almond butter
dash of cinnamon
1/2 tsp instant espresso powder

handful of ice (optional)

Blend all ingredients together.

Blueberry Date Juice

(Photo by Renee)

Renee and I were making this cake, and trying to figure out how dates grow.

Do they grown on a tree or on a bush or on a plant like a strawberry? Finally we googled it and discovered that they do, indeed, grow on trees, a little like a coconut does.

We then stumbled upon this recipe for a blueberry date juice.

After a morning of baking and cooking we were ready for a snack.

Throw bananas, milk, blueberries and dates in the blender and you get this bright violet juice that is creamy and sweet and filling.

Blueberry Date Juice

(livelighter.org)

2 Bananas

1Cup Milk

2Cups blueberries (frozen)

8 dates, pitted

1-2 Tbsp protein powder (optional)

Mix together in a mixer until smooth.

Peanut Butter Bread

Well it seems that day has come.

Jibs no longer needs to start his day with a banana.

It is always a striking to me when little routines change. Routines that seem so definitive of a certain time.

Baby Jib loved bananas, toddler Jib does not. (Though I'm sure he will always love Caroline's Banana Gelato!)

We have moved on to bigger, better, and more mature things such as peanut butter.

Peanut butter on apple slices, crackers, toast. Peanut butter in cookies and now in bread.

This bread has tons of rich peanut butter and banana flavour .

The house will smell amazing while it's cooking!

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

(adapted from Cooking Light)

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (3-4)

1/3 cup buttermilk

heaping 1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseeds(optional)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Preheat oven to 350* and grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Whisk together flours, wheat bran, soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a large bowl. (I used my kitchenaid.)

Mash banana in a medium bowl. Stir in buttermilk, peanut butter and butter. Add eggs and sugar.

Beat banana mixture into flour mixture, just until combined.

Bake for 1 hour or until cake tester comes out clean.

**I don't think this bread needs anything else, but Cooking Light suggests making a peanut glaze.

If you want to try it, here is the full recipe.

Banana Man has Quite an Appetite and Loves this Loaf

I laughed this morning as I found a piece of playdough on the floor that had been rolled up with a bit of parma ham and a few tomato seeds because I knew it had to have been my Jibs...Playing is good, eating is better.

The boy loves to eat. He gets very excited when he sees me in the kitchen. "Oh, look...Wow." He says. Quite often he outeats his big sister and occasionally even the Mama.

If you happened to read the birthday post, you will know that he loves and starts each day with a banana. I have tried probably dozens of recipes with bananas in them and so far this is one of my favourite and also one of the easiest. The other thing that I love about this one is the quantity of bananas in it. If you have an abundance of bananas that have past their prime (which never happens around here) or, if you are like me, and you buy them on the reduced rack already soft and speckled then freeze them for later, try this recipe out.

Try it plain or with a few little extras such as rum infused raisins, figs, nuts or chocolate.

Banana Bread with Options

1C plus 2T AP Flour

2t baking powder

1/2t baking soda

1/2t salt

1/2C sweet butter, melted

1/2C, scant, sugar

2 eggs

4 bananas, very ripe, mashed

1t vanilla

Good things to have on hand: 1/4C walnuts or pecans, 1/3C chopped figs, 1/2C Choco-chips, 1/3C raisins, 3oz dark rum, 2T cocoa powder.

9x5inch loaf pan, greased

------------------------------------

Preheat oven to 325*.

Put flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl and mix.

In a large bowl mix sugar and butter, then add eggs one at a time beating between additions. Add mashed banana, vanilla and stir well.

Add flour mixture in thirds mixing well with each installment.

Scrape into loaf pan and bake 1-1/4hrs.

Cool. Slice it up.

When to add the extras:

Rummy Raisin Bread: Bring rum to a boil, soak raisins in rum for up to an hour if possible. Drain raisins and stir into the batter with the mashed banana.

Chocolate: Sub in 2T cocoa powder for 2T flour, stir Chocolate chips with banana mash.

Nut: Stir in nuts and figs with the banana mash.