Time for some Banana Muffins...

It can be a little harder to use fresh ingredients in the winter, but bananas are available year round, thankfully.  Try a muffin with your morning coffee to put a smile on your face for the day ahead.  

Banana Muffins:

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs

3/4 c. milk

2 t. vanilla

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium)

1 c. diced banana (1 medium)

1 c. chopped pecans

1 cup granola

1 c. unsweetened coconut flakes

Dried banana chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spray 12 jumbo muffin cups (2 pans) with non-stick spray.   Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment.  Add melted butter and blend. Combine eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed banana and add to flour/butter mixture.  Scrape bowl and make sure the ingredients are combined, but be careful not to overmix.  

Fold in diced bananas, granola, nuts, and coconut into the batter.  Spoon batter into the greased muffin cups.  Top with dried banana chips.  Bake for 25-35 minutes--until tops are slightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool 5 minutes and remove from pan.

A couple of notes to help your muffins be the best:  

1.  The worst thing you can do is over mix the batter.  Muffin texture depends on the reaction of the wet ingredients with the rising agent (baking powder and soda in this case).  When you mix the batter too much, the reaction plays out before baking and your muffins will be flatter and heavier--not optimal.  Best to mix the dry ingredients well before adding the wet--the rising agent is activated by moisture.

2.  Be sure to remove the muffins from the pan after the 5 minutes they have cooled.  If you wait a lot longer, the sides will not have the crispy texture you want.  Muffins are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  If you leave them in the pan too long, they will have a soggier texture on the bottom--also not optimum.