Banana Crunch Muffins

My sister has informed me that it has been a while since I posted something. Well, we've been busy over here in these parts. Very busy nuzzling a certain baby neck and monitoring holding turns and such things. There hasn't been too much cooking going on thanks to our wonderful family and friends who have fed us for the past few weeks. However, I have taken care of breakfast and snacks so what I am sharing today is the result of my breakfast cooking. I would love to share some of the actual muffins but if you came'a knocking at my door, I'm sorry to say that there would be none to share. I couldn't stop eating them. And nursing appetite aside, they were really that good. Today I whipped up another batch to show you these photographs so if you came by in the next day or so you might actually score one for yourself. Hurry though, this nursing mama needs her calories!

The recipe is adapted from one on Allrecipes.com

In a large bowl, mix 3 cups of flour (I use half whole wheat/half unbleached), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt. Whisk to combine. Measure the wet ingredients into a large liquid measuring cup. Mix 3/4 cup milk, 2 eggs (I used "flax eggs" 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds and 6 tablespoons water) and 1 cup of oil or melted butter (do not be afraid of the fat, it makes everything better). Mash 2 or 3 very ripe bananas. I chose not to show the mashed bananas, they looked pretty grotty. Set all these mixtures and mashes aside while you measure out the crunchy stuff and butter your muffin pans. This recipe makes 24 muffins, by the way. You can cut the recipe in half or keep the extra muffins to freeze or eat in a frenzy later on.

In another bowl, measure out the crunchy ingredients. You need 1 cup of chopped walnuts, 1 cup of coconut and 1 cup of granola or oatmeal. If you can, use your mother-in-laws antique bowl that she left in your fridge over the weekend full of egg salad so you wouldn't have to cook. Try not to think about keeping it.

Now, back to the first bowls. Pour your wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix quickly and gently. Quickly and gently are the cardinal rules of muffin mixing. Never forget them. Stir in the mashed bananas. See, I told you they look ooky. Don't worry about mixing it completely, when you add the crunchy stuff everything will mix together.

Pour in the ingredients that were in the Mother-in-law bowl. Again, try not to covet the bowl. Recognize your obsession with antique mixing bowls and then move on. I hope you are impressed with my action shot going on here. I try. Gently fold the nuts/coconut/granola mixture in. Remember the cardinal rule and don't get too busy with the folding.

Scoop the batter into the muffin tins. A word about buttering the tins as opposed to using paper liners. Obviously, the paper liners are easier but the muffins always stick and then you lose some of the delicious muffin. This bothers me so I buck up and butter the tins. Also, have you ever tried to eat a muffin while pulling the paper liners off of muffins for 5 kids? By the time you get to the fourth kid, the first one is ready for another muffins. Not very conducive to muffin eating.

Here are the muffins after baking for 20 to 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Warm and moist with a bit of crunchy yumminess, just perfect!