Banana Walnut Muffins
A week or so ago I was playing around looking at the different national food holidays. I’m not sure how they come to decide what day is what, but it’s still fun to look and occasionally play along and celebrate. I noticed that banana bread day was coming up, unfortunately I had the date wrong in my head and missed it… it was earlier this week but that didn’t stop me from fixing up a new banana bread type item. I decided to go with muffins instead, close enough I figure.
I’d already made a banana bread and strawberry banana muffins so I wanted to come up with something a little different. My plan was to use dehydrated banana slices to top off the muffins or maybe even put banana chunks inside. The problem was that apparently dehydrating bananas in the oven takes a ridiculous amount of time that I was simply not willing to do. We’re talking 18 hours! That’s what I found as an answer anyway and that was clearly requiring too much of an effort… not happening! I also didn’t want to go to the store so I stuck with some basic but honestly perfect muffins instead.
I’d never tried this recipe and did switch it up slightly. I lowered the amount of liquid and in the end adjusted the bake time. See… not too much of a change but still important changes. To quote the Mr … these were “freakishly delicious, good texture, right moistness…I want to eat all of them.” That pretty much sums it up.
Banana Walnut Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 C all purpose flour
- 1 C old fashioned oats
- 3/4 C light brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 2/3 C half and half
- 2 medium bananas, roughly 1C
- 3/4 C walnuts, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Prepare a 12 cup muffin pan (or two if you happen to have two pans) with liners or baking spray. In a large bowl or stand mixer, add flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Top off with mashed bananas, softened butter and egg. Begin mixing on low, slowly pouring in the half and half as it mixes. Continue mixing until all ingredients are incorporated well. Pour in chopped walnuts and give another quick mix until dispersed throughout the batter. You can also opt to stir the walnuts in by hand if you prefer.
- Using a large cookie scoop, divide batter among muffin cups with one large scoop each. If using only one muffin pan, reserve extra batter to make additional muffins later.
- In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons sugar and 3/4 teaspoons cinnamon. Top off muffin batter with a spoonful of cinnamon sugar mix.
- Bake muffins for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool for several minutes in the pan, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to several days.
Love that first picture Rachel! The cinnamon sugar mix on top looks perfect :)
The crisp top on the muffins looks wonderful.
Mmm, banana muffins are my fav! These look like Starbucks’ with the cinnamon sugar on top!
Love the oats in these banana muffins. No way I would have taken the 18 hours it takes to dehydrate those bananas. Though it would be fun to have some for the topping.
I love the cinnamon sugar topping! I never would have spent 18 hours dehydrating bananas either.
Hey,
I am looking forward to trying this recipe… do you think it’s alright to use wholemeal flour instead of regular flour? If yes, then should there be any change in the qty of anything?
I’ve personally never used whole-wheat/wholemeal flour but this is the information I found and hope it helps you.
“Whole-wheat flour usually can be substituted for part or all of the all-purpose flour in most recipes. If a recipe calls for two cups flour, try one cup all-purpose and one cup whole-wheat. When completely substituting whole-wheat for white, use 7/8 cup whole-wheat for one cup of white flour.”
These look fantastic. I can taste the warm banana bread flavor right now. Mmm…
Those are SO gorgeous! I am wanting one for breakfast right now!