Banana Nut Muffins

[A Patric]

I love them. They are by far my favorite muffin. For those of you who feel similarly, what is your theory for how to make the best ones?

Pecans or walnuts?

How many bananas per dozen muffins?

Butter, oil, or shortening?

Additional liquid? What type? Milk, buttermilk, other?

Baking powder, baking soda or both?

Recipes are welcome!

Thanks!

[sugar plum]

My favourite recipe is Ina Garten's banana crunch muffins from her first Barefoot Contessa cookbook. They are absolutely delicious. I've tried many banana muffin recipes and these reign supreme!

What I think is key for a good recipe is a lot of bananas and a contrast in textures. Ina's has 2 cups of bananas for 18 muffins and walnuts. I won't go into to details as to obey eGullet posting rules but I can send you the recipe if you wish.

[A Patric]

If it's true that only one person shares my love of this type of muffin and that no one else has any preferences regarding techniques, then I'll forget all about this thread. But is it true?...that no one else has any insight?

Thanks for any further comments.

[K8memphis]

No not at all, give it a little time. Some folks are kinda tied up with the holiday. Umm, I have a favorite banana bread I love, so I usually don't make banana muffins. But I wouldn't hesitate to make a mini muffin out of it if I had some batter leftover.

[Tweety69bird]

Me me!! I really like banana nut muffins!! You can even throw some chocolate chips in there if you like...

I like a crunchy top over a soft one... I think we all agree that the top of the muffin is the best part...

I have no insight for you on how to come up with the best muffin though... but at least you know it's not just the 3 of you...

[K8memphis]

My banana bread formula I totally agree the more banana the better. Toasted coconut & pecans makes a great topping too, mixed with a strusel-y buttery topping.

But yah just gotta have cinnamon

Bet toffee chips would be good on top.

But even just the carmelly nicely browned off tops are awesome. I even use toasted oats for topping sometimes mixed in with a streusel-y topping for a sweet batter and plain toated oats to top regular breads.

Geez I haven't baked bread in forever. It lodges on my thighs y'know.

Thigh food is not my friend unfortunalely...but I do have that persistent potato refrigerator roll dough going with a tea ring right now for Thanksgiving. Wait, wait, but I didn't make four times the recipe this year That's gotta count for something!

[lapin d'or]

Lots of banana for me too, my recipe has about the same weight of banana to flour.

It has a few oats as well as pecans and chocolate chips.

I use butter, but this is melted and cooled first. I tried walnut oil once but didn't think it helped much.

I can never get my muffins to taste like the ones I bought on holiday in the US but they still taste good.

I sometimes sprinkle a little home made muslei on top for extra crunch.

I take most of my muffin recipes from a book called 'Muffins Fast and Fantasic' by Susan Reimer. These work quite well and there are lots of ideas for flavourings.

[A Patric]

Wow,

This is really interesting. It seems that a lot of you are doing a few things that I've never even heard of, i.e., adding chocolate, granola/oats, and/or coconut.

I didn't even imagine these possibilities, let alone expect that they would be common. It looks like I'm going to have a bit of experimenting to do.

Please keep the ideas coming!

[kitwilliams]

Pecans.

Butter and oil, heavy on the butter.

A bit of cream.

No cinnamon. Nutmeg.

A touch of molasses makes all the difference. About a tablespoon per dozen. Doesn't need much.

mmmmmmmmmmm. banana muffins.

(happy thanksgiving to all!)

[K8memphis]

And raisins too--now if you haven't tired it don't poo poo it. Umm, the first time I saw raisins in banana bread I quietly thought amateur!! But it's really good. 'Specialy if you rum-ify* 'em And you can grind them too so they disappear.

*(soak in rum I mean)

[A Patric]

Well, I bought some banana chips today, so I'll try those on the top, and I also bought a couple of new muffin tins that have large cavities. I have a feeling that the larger muffins will be slightly more moist, and that might really make a difference.

I'll update tomorrow after I've made the muffins.

[A Patric]

Hi all,

Kit brought up the idea of molasses...

What type of sweetener do the rest of you use? Have you ever tried to sweeten enough with bananas alone? I wonder if that would lead to a weird cloying sweetness due to extra fructose (proportionally that is)? Do any of you swear by brown sugar? How about maple syrup?

Unfortunately my bananas aren't ripe enough yet today. Soooo...I'll keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow.

[A Patric]

...and taking the issue of sweetening and molasses a bit further, for those of you that use molasses, do you have a preference?

I've been doing some reading, and realize the diversity of molasses products, as well as things like sorghum that are sometimes paired with the word molasses, but that are actually a different product altogether. Of all of these, it sounds like blackstrap molasses might be the most pungent addition to a banana muffin, and perhaps the most interesting. Any thoughts?

[browniebaker]

I use a lot of bananas, two cups mashed (extremely ripe!) bananas to two cups flour, making 12 muffins.

Two eggs.

No other wet ingredients.

I like brown sugar best as the sweetener.

Toasted walnut pieces (not too small) are the nut of choice.

1/4 cup canola oil usually, although I sometimes make all-butter or half-butter-half-oil muffins.

The leaveners are 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

No vanilla or spices.

Oat-crumble topping of rolled oats, brown sugar, butter, flour, and a little salt all rubbed together until clumpy.

1 cup semi-sweet-chocolate chunks or white-chocolate-chunks get thrown in if I want to make these muffins extra-kid-pleasing.

[K8memphis]

...and taking the issue of sweetening and molasses a bit further, for those of you that use molasses, do you have a preference?

I've been doing some reading, and realize the diversity of molasses products, as well as things like sorghum that are sometimes paired with the word molasses, but that are actually a different product altogether.  Of all of these, it sounds like blackstrap molasses might be the most pungent addition to a banana muffin, and perhaps the most interesting.  Any thoughts?

←

My only thought is if I used blackstrap I would do so sparingly so it does not overpower the banana and become molasses bread. And in fact I would not add any unless I was out of brown sugar. I think that the molasses in brown sugar is aleady balanced enough to use as is without any additional. Otherwise just make some Boston Brown bread maybe. I think molasses is a strong strong flavor anyway--the blackstrap would shoot and kill the banana I think.

I think rum would be a great flavor enhancer in banana bread. Coconut rum even.

[Live It Up]

I've mentioned my banana "bread" before, but I just made it again a couple of weeks ago. It's my great grandmother's recipe, and she called it "banna cake". Yes, banna (it's written like that in several places). Anyway, I always make it in muffins, because I hate slicing loaves (crumbs!). From what the rest of you have said, mine seem pretty boring in comparison, but I've never wanted to stray from the recipe. It's very simple: bananas, shortening, white sugar, sour cream, no spices (can't remember if there's vanilla--I think there is). I go back and forth on the walnut/pecan thing, though next time I might try macadamias. Also, I really like the idea of an oat/crunch topping--that's something to think about for next time.

[Shalmanese]

The local fruit market was giving away over-ripe bananas so I made banana bread.

The bread was sweetened with a mix of Demera sugar and Dulce de Leche. I added most of the Demera to the wet mix and dissolved it but I also threw some in with the flour so that you would get the texture of the sugar in there as well.

Not too sweet but really tasty and really moist.

[rasamalaysia]

I am not much of a baker, but found this really easy Banana Nut Muffins which are non-baker friendly but absolutely delicious.

The recipe is here: http://www.rasamalaysia.com/2007/09/recipe...ut-muffins.html

[rasamalaysia]

For your convenience, here is the recipe adapted from Food Network. I simplied the method of preparation and it's absolutely delish. Easy to make and non-baker friendly.

Recipe: Bananu Nut Muffins

Adapted from Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 overripe bananas

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (melted)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and arrange the baking cups in a muffin pan.

Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. In a large bowl, combine the flour, butter, eggs, baking soda, the remaining 2 bananas, sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat the ingredients with an electric mixer for 3 minutes or until all ingredients are mixed together. Fold in the chopped walnuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Spoon the batter into each of the baking cup and fill about halfway.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the muffins turn brown. Makes 18 regular muffins.