Banana Bread... & Muffins

Pretty much, anytime I have bananas in the kitchen that are too ripe (for me) to eat, I make a batch of banana bread. I really like how it can be made into either a standard loaf OR in the form of muffins, and this time, I split the batter to make some of each. I like this recipe because it's pretty forgiving and easy to switch things up by adding in any number of tasty flavors to suit your mood. This particular batch included chocolate chips and chopped walnuts, but I think my all time favorite combination is with peanut butter and chocolate chips... or cocoa powder and walnuts... mmm... What was I saying? Oh, right. Whatever combination floats your boat will turn out great... and they're fantastic for breakfast or as a snack. This time around, I froze the loaf and put the muffins in an airtight container in the fridge where they'll last the rest of the week.

Banana Bread... & Muffins

this recipe made 12 muffins & 1 loaf

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup apple sauce (I keep jars of this in my pantry, usually the unsweetened kind)

3 eggs

1 Tbs. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups AP flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt (I always use fine sea salt)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Optional Add-ins: 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (or any nut butter would be tasty), 3/4 cup chopped nuts, 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the bananas, sugars, vegetable oil, apple sauce, eggs, and vanilla. I usually mash the bananas right in this bowl before dumping everything else in and stirring together with a wooden spoon. I suppose you could use an electric mixer if you really wanted to, but it's not exactly hard to mix these few ingredients together with a spoon... and it means fewer dishes to wash if you skip the mixer.

Anyway, in a separate mixing bowl, whisk (or sift) together all of the dry ingredients before adding them to the wet ingredients. As tasty as the final product is in it's basic form, I really like to play with my add-ins and hopefully, you thought about it before starting. If using the cocoa powder, whisk it in with the dry ingredients before adding to the wet. If you want to use a nut butter, stir that into the wet ingredients before adding the dry. If your preference is for the chopped nuts and/or the chocolate chips, I like to combine those with 1 Tbs. of flour to coat them before folding them into the completed batter. (Why the extra bit of flour? It prevents the heavier nuts/chips from sinking to the bottom of the pan during baking, allowing them to stay suspended throughout the batter as it bakes.)

For bread, I like to use 2 of the 8"x3"x2" loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes before turning the bread out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Like any quick bread, this stuff freezes beautifully... if you can resist eating it all right away. ;)

If your preference is for muffins, this amount of batter will make 18 large (if cups are filled all the way) or 24 standard (if cups are filled 3/4 of the way full) muffins. Bake at 325 degrees for 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick blah blah blah. I only let muffins cool in the pan for a few minutes before turning them out on a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!