Basic Banana Muffins

 

These banana muffins are  buttery, moist 

and packed with that 

great banana flavor.  

 

The muffins won’t taste banana-y enough if over-ripe bananas aren’t used, the ones with brown spots on the peel. 

 

Tasty Banana Bread with Dried Cherries

 

Tweaking a classic banana bread 

works for me, 

particularly when 

dried cherries are in the mix!

 

 

As bananas ripen to their prime squishiness ~ when they are barely yellow ~ but streaked with black and brown, even solid black, that’s the time to make banana bread.  

 

Homemade Banana Crumb Muffins

Use up your ripe bananas with this

banana muffin recipe!

Speaking of muffins ~ remember the Seinfeld episode, “The Muffin Tops?"

Quick Banana Bread

Do you remember  

The Joy of Cooking 

cookbook?  

My 1972 edition is still going strong, still used today.

The strange thing is I like the flavor of bananas, but the mushy texture grosses me out.  That’s when banana bread enters the scene.

This is a great simple recipe for the bread.  I adapted the original a touch by adding vanilla extract and scattering nuts over the top before baking, instead of combing them with the batter. 

If you prefer, add ½ cup of chopped nuts and ¼ cup finely chopped apricots to the batter, and then a sprinkling of turbinado sugar over the top of the loaf before baking.

That just could be the way to go!

Here's the recipe...

Quick Banana Bread
Printable recipe

Preheat oven to 350°.

Sift before measuring:
1¾ cups all-purpose flour

Resift with:
2¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Blend until creamy:
⅓ cup shortening
⅔ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon grated lemon rind

Beat in:
1 beaten egg
1¼ cups ripe banana pulp (about 3 bananas)

Add the sifted ingredients in about 3 parts to the sugar mixture.
Beat the batter after each addition until smooth.
Place batter in a greased 9 x 5 x 3 inches loaf pan.
Scatter ½ cup chopped walnuts over top.
Bake the bread until brown on top and done in the center (poke with a toothpick; it should come out clean) for 50 to 55 minutes.
Let stand in pan for 10 minutes, turn out on wire rack.
Cool completely before slicing.



Enjoy!

Homemade Banana Lemon Bread

If you have over-ripe bananas over there on your kitchen counter, this recipe, not the garbage can, is the way to go with them!

It’s great the way the zing of the lemon perks up the sweetness of the bananas in this loaf of banana lemon bread.  You get a mellow banana flavor when using bananas that are too ripe for any other purpose.  Just remember not to over-mix the dough; mix it by hand, not an electric mixer. 

Should you bake a loaf of this, you will have a tasty quick bread that is good enough for breakfast, as a snack or dessert!

Homemade Banana Lemon Bread

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, melted

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

¾ cup walnuts, chopped

2 medium bananas (1 cup), mashed

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a 9” x 5” loaf pan or 3 mini loaf pans.

In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt.

Stir into the butter mixture until smooth.

Gently fold in sour cream, lemon zest, walnuts and bananas.

Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes for large loaf pan or 25 minutes for mini loaves, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 1 large loaf or 3 mini loaves

ENJOY!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog, @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and delicious easy recipes! 

And ~ take a minute to enter my giveaway for Tate’s Bake Shop Cookie and Bar Tower, if you haven’t already.  You just might be the happy winner!

Low Fat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Muffins can be a breakfast food, right?  Some are so sweet and loaded with a heap of fat that they could be called a cupcake.  Actually though, a muffin is kin to a quick bread baked in individual servings while a cupcake is just that ~ a small cake.

Muffins are great and these are low in fat and low in sugar as well.  They are filled with great banana flavor and flecked with semi-sweet chocolate chips for a terrific taste combination to make them extra special.  The addition of sour cream produces a muffin that holds its shape as you eat it and doesn’t crumble apart because of dryness.  To get the best banana flavor, use really ripe bananas!

Low Fat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

1¾ cup flour

1/3 cup sugar, or Splenda

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup banana, mashed (about 2 bananas)

½ cup low fat sour cream

¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Grease or paper-line a 12-muffin cup pan.

In small bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, mash bananas.

Add oil, egg and vanilla.  Blend without over-stirring.

Stir in sour cream and chocolate chips. 

Distribute in muffin cups.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan 5 minutes.

Remove muffins to wire rack to cool completely.

They’re tastylicious!

Check out my friend, Linda’s blog, at

My Kind of Cooking for her great recipes and giveaway!

Blueberry-Banana Muffins, the Low-Fat, Low-Sugar Way

Ummm, love freshly baked muffins and I am always on the quest for a great low-fat, low-sugar muffin.  These muffins are some of the best I’ve found.  They have less than 1 gram of fat and less than 9 grams of sugar with 20 grams of carbohydrates at 94 calories each.  

The muffins are even better the next day as the addition of the fruit makes them bake up very moist and light.  This is a great way to use up over-ripe bananas.  

Make them with the combination of fruits that you like, chopped strawberries would work well also.  This recipe could be made even healthier by using whole wheat flour and as the fruit makes them quite sweet, you may not want to add as much Splenda.   

Dispensing with the paper liners and spraying with a no-stick cooking spray would make them not quite as moist and add a crispier edging to them, if that is to your liking.  If you want to bake more of these muffins at one time, do not double the recipe; make them in 2 separate batches.   

For low-fat, low-sugar muffins, they pack a lot of flavor! 

 
Blueberry-Banana Muffins, the Low-Fat, Low-Sugar Way

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 ¼ cups mashed bananas

1/3 cup Splenda

¼ cup fat-free flavored yogurt or non-fat sour cream (I used blueberry yogurt)

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

Method:

Set oven at 350 degrees.

Spray 12 regular muffin cups with non-stick spray or line with paper liners.

In a large bow, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and blueberries.

In another bowl, beat bananas, Splenda, yogurt, egg and vanilla until just blended.  Stir into the dry blueberry mixture until combined.

Divide the mixture into muffin tins.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

They’re fruity good and easy to whip up!

Mom's Banana Cream Pie

This picture brings back good memories of my childhood in Pickerington, Ohio. 

Those were the good old days!

Vicki (almost 4) in Santa's left arm

Here’s a little banana trivia for you:

·         A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to 20 bananas, which are known as fingers.

·         The phrase “going bananas” was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary and is linked to the fruit’s “comic” connections with monkeys.

·         Over 28 pounds of bananas are eaten by the average American every year.

·         In Council Bluffs, Iowa it is against the law to sell bananas without warning the buyer of the dangers of casting the peel on the footpath.

·         The banana was first mentioned in Buddhist texts from the 6^th Century.

·         Chiquita Brands International is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

·         Chiquita Banana was created by Dik Browne who is best known for his “Hagar the Horrible” comic strip.

·         Elvis was a very enthusiastic fan of banana cream pie!

Now,  for the banana cream pie!  Vicki, my great cousin back in Ohio, asked for this recipe of Mom's, and here it is:

Mom's Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients:

1 baked pie shell
2 large bananas, sliced

4 eggs

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

3 cups milk

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 egg white meringue

Method:

Prepare baked pie shell.  Set aside.

Separate egg yolks from whites, set whites aside for meringue.

Filling:

Combine sugar and cornstarch.  Gradually stir in milk.

Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly.

Cook and stir for 2 additional minutes.  Remove from heat.

Slightly beat egg yolks with a fork.

Gradually stir about 1 cup of the hot filling into yolks.

Pour egg yolk mixture into hot filling in pan.

Bring to a gentle boil.  Cook and stir for 2 additional minutes.

Remove from heat.  Stir in butter and vanilla.

Press plastic wrap onto filling in saucepan.
Cool to room temperature.
Slice 2 bananas into pie shell.
Pour filling over bananas.

Make meringue.

Meringue:

4 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ cup sugar.

Let egg whites stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine egg whites, vanilla and cream of tartar.

Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed about 1 minute until soft peaks form (the tips curl).

Gradually add sugar, a little at a time, beating on high speed about 4 minutes until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks (tips stand straight) and sugar dissolves.

Immediately spread meringue over hot pie filling.

Assemble pie:

Spread meringue over chilled filling and bananas.
Seal to edge of pie shell to prevent shrinkage.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or till lightly browned.

Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour.

Chill 3 to 6 hours before serving.

ENJOY!