banana crumb muffins

I had a real "baker" moment last weekend. I woke up and just felt the urge to BAKE something. I've never had that feeling before. The problem was I didn't really have that many ingredients handy...until noticed there were four over-ripe bananas hanging around. Eureka! I found this amazing recipe for Banana Crumb Muffins on the internet and off I went.

A couple of hours later, my house spelled wonderfully of bananas and cinnamon and I could barely wait for these babies to cool before I started nibbling. My parents were there when these came out of the oven and they could barely contain their enthusiasm (I fear my mom will be handing me over-ripe bananas by the bushel now in the hopes I will make more for her!)

The only (very minor) problem I had was the amazing crumb topping on these inevitably goes soggy by the next day...I haven't figured a way to keep them crunchy yet. Not that it mattered much as this batch was gone by the third day!

banana crumb muffins
source: slightly adapted from allrecipes.com
printer-friendly version

ingredients:

for the muffins:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

for the topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

directions:

for the muffins:

Preheat oven to 375˚ F. Line a standard muffin tray with 10 paper liners.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In another large bowl, mash up the bananas with a fork. Beat together bananas, sugar, egg, cinnamon and melted butter until well mixed and only very small lumps of banana remain. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until everything is moistened.

Spoon the batter into lined muffin cups.

for the topping:

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in softened butter until mixture is crumbly and has small lumps of sugar. Sprinkle topping evenly over the muffin batter.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Transfer the muffin tin to a wire rack to cool completely before removing the muffins.

yields: 10 muffins