Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Banana Crunch Whole-Wheat Muffins

What do you do with over ripe bananas?

Is there really a need to even ask that question?

You make banana bread of course!

It’s a great metaphor for life really - once we’ve become “spotted” or “spoiled” we can still be changed and made (in my opinion) into something better. (Better because I’d choose bananas baked into a carb over raw any day.)

As usually happens when I buy bananas, I had some that had not been eaten and had past their prime. When I saw this recipe from The Barefoot Contessa with the word CRUNCH in it, I knew exactly what my over ripe banana's would soon become. To healthy these up a bit I swapped out 1 2/3 cup of the all-purpose flour for fresh milled whole-wheat flour and replaced 1 cup of the refined sugar with 1 cup more of squished bananas (the recipe below reflects my changes. Oh! And due to allergies, I also left out the nuts). If you don’t have whole grain flour and/or don’t care about refined sugar then just change it back to The Barefoot Contessa’s original recipe of 3 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups sugar and 1 cup mashed ripe banana.

I’m sure either way you mix it-they will be great, but I can only vouch for the whole-wheat version. I also think these muffins would accompany a smoothie of the pina colada or peanut butter variety quite well.

Banana Crunch Whole-Wheat Muffins

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup whole-wheat flour (I used fresh milled red winter wheat)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 extra-large eggs
¾ cup whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (4 bananas)
1 cup medium-diced bananas (1 banana)
1 ¾ cup granola (divided)
1 ¾ cup sweetened shredded coconut (divided)
½ cup banana chips (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush the flat surface of the cupcake pan with oil to prevent muffin spillage from sticking to the pan.  Line 30 regular muffin cups with paper liners.
  2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and alt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the melted butter and blend well but do not over mix or you’ll end up with tough muffins. Then add in the eggs, milk and vanilla. Scrape the bowl. If you are making the day before the muffins will be served, cover the batter and put it in the fridge. When you are ready to finish the recipe add the mashed bananas to the batter. Again be careful not to over mix.
  3. Fold in the diced bananas, 1 ½ cups granola and 1 ½ cups coconut into the batter. Scoop the batter into the prepared baking tins, filling each to the very top. Top each muffin the remaining granola, coconut and dried bananas (if desired). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from the pan and serve warm.
Notes:
I used Back to Nature 100% Natural Chocolate Delight Granola. It is very crunchy and contains no refined sugar (other than what is included in the dark chocolate chunks).

Source: Adapted from Ina Garten Recipe on Food Network

12 comments:

Chef Dennis Littley said...

I am always looking for new ways to use my leftover banana's! this recipe looks like a keeper for sure!
I love the coconut addition, just have to make some without for my wife...sigh

Cheers
Dennis

Food Frenzy said...

Wow! That looks amazing and sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

Trac said...

These look so yummy! Your photography is awesome! I don't have a fancy camera either, but my pics still don't turn out well. Did you take any photography classes, or are you just that good?!

Apron Appeal said...

Trac...I've been playing around for a while, I've never taken formal class, but I ask Amy Jo and other photographers a LOT of questions and I scour the internet for anything I can find to help me. Mostly I shoot manually, without a flash, ISO 800 and in MACRO mode. I play around with the light settings but as far as white balance...I still don't know how to do that and in truth...I really don't know what any of that means...someone just told me to do it so that is what I do. :)

Bestfoodies said...

The muffins look really good, on my list to try!

Ju said...

These are on my to do list

Trac said...

Ok, I just made these last night so we could have a breakfast muffin in the morning, and these are so so so so good! I am always trying to sneak in whole wheat flour in any place I can. Why have white flour when I can have wheat? I think next time I may try applesauce for half the butter and see how that goes. These are HUGE hit over here! Thanks for finding this one-Awesome!

Apron Appeal said...

Thanks Trac! let me know how the applesauce version goes...Me, I'm always looking for a reason to use more butter so subbing it out is something that never crosses my mind...it's good fat right?!

Chelsea said...

Making these and taking them to YW tonight. Hopefully they turn out as good as yours looks. PS: I love this blog!

Apron Appeal said...

Pressure's on! I'm posting these recipes so other people can enjoy them, but I'm always very nervous that I've typed the recipe wrong or that they I'm the only one who will like them. If you don't like them, you don't have to tell me, but I think I'd appreciate it if you did. ;)

Patrice said...

Well, the muffins were a hit, at least they were with me! I am going to make them thanks to Chelsea bringing them to YW. And it was meant to be since we have 3 over-ripe bananas just begging to be turned into something good. And on the first line of the recipe, "pan" is missing the "n".

Apron Appeal said...

Thanks Patrice, I'm relieved. But I'm surprised you don't know what a pa is..;) Thanks for the correction. It's so embarrassing that I make so many errors, but I'd rather know about them than walk around with mustard on my face you know?!

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