Banana Crumb Muffins

I’m getting together with the girls I graduated with who played college volleyball with me. We were called out at our college gradation by the President of the university as the “Fab 5” so we jokingly call ourselves that. We were great teammates & great friends, and we look forward to getting together to exchange little gifts, eat like we’re still working out 5 hours a day, and catching up on all the life we’ve missed since our last reunion. Anyhow, last night I made some Banana Crumb Muffins for us to enjoy for breakfast. Eugene sampled one & immediately asked for another…guess it’s a keeper recipe. :)

I made another banana crumb muffin recipe a while ago {posted here}, but I like this one better. As I usually do, I found a couple recipes and made my own combination of ingredients sneaking in my own ideas here & there too. I mainly used the recipe here, but I made a handful of adjustments/substitutions too. The best part was the bran cereal flakes & pecans in the crumb topping. The muffins were slightly spongy because I used applesauce instead of butter, but that texture is just fine for me when it’s a muffin.

Banana Crumb Muffins
Made 12 muffins

Muffin ingredients:

3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 medium/large ripened bananas, mashed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon cinnamon {or so, I didn’t really measure}
1/2 teaspoon vanilla {again, didn’t really measure here}

Crumb topping

4 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup slightly crushed bran flakes cereal
1/4 cup chopped pecans {or more if ya like ‘em}
2 Tablespoons brown sugar {not pictured}

First, preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Then, in a medium bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a separate large bowl mix together the mashed bananas, sugar, egg & applesauce.

Combine the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.

And at this point, I realized I wanted to add cinnamon to the muffin batter, so I threw some in…yeah, I’m not a precise baker!

Spoon batter into sprayed muffin cups.

Now ya get to make the delicious crumb mixture. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 4 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter just until moistened. It will resemble coarse cornmeal.

Add in your chopped pecans & crushed bran flakes and mix it together.

Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Pop ‘em in your preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let them cool on a baking rack {if you have enough patience to not eat them right away!}

 

Serve one to your Valentine & ask him to be your muffin. ;) {sorry couldn’t resist.}

It’s been one heckuva long & draining week. I’m thankful to have made it through another week. Happy Friday folks!

Recipe linked to: