One of my BFFs, Wendy, just had surgery. I’ve committed to making her family a batch of muffins every week for 6 weeks. It’s a muffin pledge.
Week 1: banana oat muffins with chocolate chips. A family fav.
Sometimes you have too many bananas laying around because they’ve gone a bit too brown and they are rejected… sometimes you buy too many bananas ON PURPOSE.
My “go to” methods for reducing the number of bananas in my house is to freeze them (peel, slice, baggie). My methods for actually using them up are generally: smoothies, banana muffins and banana bread (in that order).
This muffin recipe is FANTASTIC. First of all, because it calls for 5 or 6 medium bananas. It’s a blessing. Amen. So many other banana muffin recipes use up 2 bananas. That’s just bonkers. Why go to all that trouble for just 2 bananas?
This recipe is also FANTASTIC because the muffins are DELICIOUS. They are moist and have a great ‘crumb’. It’s a totally standard recipe – no special ingredients other than maybe oatmeal, which is pretty standard in my opinion. The oats give it some body, which differentiates the muffin from a banana bread. (Why bother making banana bread in muffin form? Just make the bread already!)
In all my years of baking muffins, I’ve learned that the things you toss in at the end are often most important part of the muffin. Raisins and other dried fruit can really piss kids off, while chocolate chips are not fully enjoyed by many adults. Toasted nuts are good for all, I find. Sometimes I split the batter and try to please everyone. But not usually. I generally make whatever the hell I want.
This recipe (in its infancy) actually called for cranberries – dried or otherwise. I’ve put them in once (ok, they were actually dried cherries). People at work ate them happily enough, but they’re basically always starving and desperate. So there were no further iterations with dried cranberries cherries.
This batch has a couple of handfuls of chocolate chips. For maximum enjoyment.
Try this recipe. It’s fantastic!!
- 1 1/4 c all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 c quick oats
- 2/3 c granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt depending on your taste
- 1 egg
- 2 cups mashed bananas (5 or 6)
- 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted, hurray!
- 1 cup of anything you like (nuts, chocolate, dried fruit)
- Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl.
- Mix well.
- In another bowl beat egg, banana and melted butter until smooth.
- Add to dry ingredients and stir to blend.
- Stir in cranberries just to mix.
- Fill greased muffin tins till almost full.
- Bake at 375˚ for approximately 20 minutes.
- Sprinkle a few large flakes oats on the top for a pro finish.
