Monday, April 19, 2010

Banana Nut Muffins




Mmmmmuffins! Sometimes sweet, sometimes savory! Truly versatile. You can have sweet muffins with your breakfast, savory muffins as lunch or snack or an appetizer! I tweaked, I twisted and finally came up with a "healthy" version of a classic banana nut muffin recipe!

The other day, I had 3-4 overripe bananas, sitting in my fruit basket! I have enough of those bananas in my freezer for my smoothies. So I definitely didn't want to dump them in the freezer this time. I thought about making muffins for Sunday breakfast but originally they would have been blueberry muffins. And thanks to those mushy bananas and a jarful of walnuts, I thought of making banana nut muffins instead. And the complements were: Restaurant quality muffins! Hmmmm, now that is something to treasure for life especially when it comes from the picky eaters in my family!

So, here is the recipe. Give it a try!

Banana Nut Muffins(makes 6 large or 12 medium muffins)

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 large ripe bananas, mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)
2 large eggs,lightly beaten
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup buttermilk (no buttermilk? add equal parts of plain yogurt and water)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

Garnish: (Optional)
1/2 cup quick cooking oats (I love the crunch!)

How to:
Preheat oven to 400° F. Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Spray the muffin pan. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly, including walnuts. In another bowl, mix wet ingredients. With a spatula, lightly fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Do not over mix. Mixture should be lumpy. Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups, sprinkle quick cooking oats on top of each muffin, bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Place on a wire rack for 10 minutes to cool down. Slather with lots of healthy omega 3 margarine and enjoy!

These muffins keep for upto 4 days at room temperature, when sealed in air tight container.


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