Banana nut muffins

 

When bananas are over ripe and brown......make muffins!  Recently my husband and I have been eating a lot of bananas.  Every weekend I buy about two bunches of bananas.  This past week I started putting strawberries in my morning oatmeal instead of bananas so the extra bananas became brown and over ripe.  I set them aside and let them sit for about another week.  The more brown a banana gets the sweeter it is, but be careful you don't want it to start liquefying on your kitchen counter.  In this recipe I added walnuts to the batter and garnished each muffin with a walnut.  Walnuts are an optional ingredient so feel free to mix it up with a different nut or not have nuts at all.  I like the Walnuts because it gives the muffins texture and an added flavor.

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas 

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

about 1/2 cup whole walnuts

mush up the bananas in a bowl with a potato masher.  In another mixing bowl add the sugar and butter and cream together.  Then add the eggs buttermilk and vanilla and mix until smooth.  The batter will be a bit lumpy but don't worry about it.  Add in your mashed bananas.  Rinse out the bowl you used for the bananas and dry it.  In this bowl add the rest of the ingredients except for the nuts.  Whisk it so that all of the dry ingredients are mixed together.  Slowly add this to your banana mixture while mixer is on a low speed.  When all ingredients are mixed together fold in the chopped nuts using a spatula.

lightly spray a muffin tin and use muffin cups.  Fill each muffin cup almost to the top.  Place a whole walnut in each muffin and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  The batter should make about 24 muffins.  Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees F and cook the muffins for about 25-30 minutes.  To make sure they are done insert a toothpick into the center of one, if it comes out clean they are done.  Allow them to cool for about 5 minutes and enjoy!

   

Banana cupcakes with Nutella frosting

I had a jar of Nutella in my cupboard that has been there for a long time.  Today I decided it was time use it, and since I love the combination of Nutella and bananas I decided to make banana cupcakes.  I also wanted to try out piping, something I've never done before.  It was a lot of fun even though what I did was pretty basic.  I think many piping creations are in my future.

For the banana cupcakes you will need:

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 stick of melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups of mashed bananas (about 4 bananas)

For the frosting:
8 oz of cream cheese
1/2 cup Nutella
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Whisk together the dry ingredients.  If you live at a high altitude make sure you are adjusting the amount of baking powder you are putting into your mixture.  Make a well in the center and set aside.

Use ripe bananas, I bought these a week ago and let them ripen on my counter top.

Mash the bananas using a fork or a hand held potato masher.  Add the rest of the wet ingredients and whisk them together until mixture is semi-smooth.

 Pour the wet ingredients into the well you made earlier.  Using a spatula mix the dry and wet together.  Don't use a beater because you don't want to over mix this recipe.  As soon as you can no longer see the dry mixture stop mixing.

Fill the cups about 3/4 of the way full.  Mine made a bit more than 12 cupcakes.  This is okay just make sure you fill the empty cups in the pan with water so that everything gets cooked evenly.

Cook for about 20-25 minutes.

In order to make sure they are done, insert a toothpick into the middle of one, If the toothpick comes out dry it is done.  Remove the cupcakes and allow them to cool.








To make the icing, beat together the cream cheese, vanilla, and Nutella.  Slowly add the powdered sugar.

Using a medium star pastry tip, place your pastry bag in a cup and using a spatula fill it with your frosting.

Don't fill the bag to the top, other wise you will have frosting coming out of the top while you are decorating.

Garnish the cupcakes with powdered sugar, and enjoy!  Store in an airtight container otherwise the frosting will harden.