Banana Nut Muffins

Need an easy weekend breakfast? How about banana nut muffins? With a streusel topping? No problem! These are simple, no fuss muffins that require few ingredients, barely any effort and little time. The recipe comes from a 1968 Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. It started out as a Banana Coffee Bread Recipe. I made some changes, and out came these moist, satisfying muffins! The simplicity of the recipe allows the bananas to really steal the show while the streusel topping adds a nice crunch. Hope you enjoy!

Banana Nut Muffins

From Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 1968 Edition

Makes 12 Muffins

See! OLD recipe!

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas, about 3 medium bananas

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven t0 350 degrees. Grease a twelve cup muffin pan, or use paper liners.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Stir in bananas, stir in dry ingredients. Mix well. Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full (mine were a little fuller).

Sprinkle with streusel topping (recipe below).

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup chilled butter

1/4 cup finely chopped nuts

Mix flour, sugars, and cinnamon; cut in butter till crumbly.

Add nuts. Sprinkle on top of muffin batter.

I had some extra, which I put in a Ziploc and threw in the freezer. All ready for the next time I'm craving a batch of muffins or coffee cake.

Have a lovely weekend!

Linking up to Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap up, Tasty Tuesdays, Tempt my tummy tuesdays, Rook No. 17, and Sunday Showcase at By Stephanie Lynn.

Nutella Toffee Banana Bread

There's nothing like the smell of banana bread baking to make me happy. I started craving it after going to Starbucks the other day and trying a piece of their bread. Ick. I was not a fan, it was a bit bland for my liking, and kind of stale (it was late afternoon though). So, home I went to bake my own. I found a recipe over on the recipe girl website that incorporates a swirl of Nutella, and I had some heath "bits o brickle" toffee chips lingering in my cupboard, so I threw those in too. I baked the bread in my mini loaf pan (inherited from my grandma), the bread came out perfect, except that I had never used the pan before and overfilled the loafs so they started creeping over the top of the pans, but no harm done, just a little uneven on top! Strong banana flavor, rich chocolate hazelnut swirl, and buttery crunchy toffee sprinkled throughout. Waaay better than Starbucks, and cheaper too!

Nutella Toffee Banana Bread

www.RecipeGirl.com

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana

1/3 cup low fat yogurt (choose your flavor, I tried maple, it was good! But plain would be delish too)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 8×4-inch loaf pan or 12 mini loaf pans with nonstick spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate large bowl, beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add banana, yogurt, toffee chips and vanilla; beat until blended.

Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until flour is incorporated (don’t over mix). Spoon Nutella into a medium dish and soften in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Add 1 cup of the banana bread batter to the Nutella and stir until blended well.

Spoon Nutella batter alternately with plain banana bread batter into the prepared pan (or pans if you have mini ones). Swirl batters together with a knife. If using mini loaf pans, bake for 30-35 minutes, if using a regular size pan, bake 60 to 70 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Check the oven about three fourths of the way through cooking time to check the top of the bread for browning. If it’s browning too quickly, cover lightly with foil for the remainder of the baking (I had to do this). Cool for at least 15 minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I wrapped the extras in parchment paper and tied with twine to give as presents.

Rich chocolaty swirl...

Hope you all have a beautiful Valentines Week!

Linking up at Tasty Tuesdays, and Rook #17

Whisked Away Wednesday: Mini Bagels Two Ways

So I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I am awful about impulse buying at the grocery store. Last week when I was grocery shopping, they had a special on those cute mini bagels. I got two bags full! I did not, however, eat two bags full. I ate one bag that week and the other one has been lurking in the back of my refrigerator for the past week. I finally decided that I better do something about them or they were gonna turn into not so cute, green, fuzzy mini bagels. I sliced them up thin, brushed them with butter, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and had my own semi-homemade bagel chips. They are sweet and crispy, the perfect after work or school snack. I whipped up a super easy honey cream cheese dip and served it alongside the bagel chips. Plus, for a bonus, I used one of the leftover bagels that I didn't make into chips to make a to-die-for banana peanut butter sandwich. Two healthy(ish) ways to satisfy those sweet tooth cravings!

Cinnamon Sugar Bagel Chips

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

Just a few ingredients...

12 mini bagels

3 tablespoons cinnamon

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Thinly slice bagels (I got about four slices per bagel). Lightly brush both sides of bagel slices with butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon, stir well. Place bagel slices on lined baking sheets, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Drizzle chips with......

Honey Cream Cheese Dip

Recipe from food.com

Ingredients

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Whisk together all ingredients until well combined. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Ooey Gooey Banana Sandwich
Ingredients

1 mini bagel, split in half

5-6 banana slices

1-2 tablespoons Honey Cream Cheese Dip (see above recipe)

2 tablespoons peanut butter

Spread one side of bagel with peanut butter.

Cover with banana slices.

Glop on Honey Cream cheese spread. This is gonna get messy, just embrace it!

Spread other half of bagel with more peanut butter and place on top of sandwich.

Prepare to enjoy one ooey gooey good sandwich!

Have a great Wednesday!

Magazine/Cookbook Monday: Chocolate Covered Banana Biscotti

Have you ever noticed that basically every coffee shop offers biscotti for sale, but almost no one ever buys them? They always seem to be shoved to the side in a generic plastic wrapper, out shone by the lovely baked scones, cookies and muffins. When I ran across this recipe for banana biscotti in my Cookie Dough Fun cookbook, I decided it was high time I give biscotti a try. I had never seen biscotti made with fresh fruit before. I thought that maybe the banana would give the biscotti a bit more flavor and a bit more softness (I know biscotti is supposed to be hard but I don't want one that cracks my teeth!). The recipe was fairly easy to make, the only part that gave me some trouble was shaping the dough into loaves. I had to add A LOT of flour to get them not to stick. The resulting cookies have a light banana flavor that is complemented by a chocolate coating. They remind me of banana bread but crunchy. I dunked them in a mug of hot cocoa and thoroughly enjoyed munching away on my hard crunchy cookie, actually cookies.... it's hard to eat just one!

Chocolate Covered Banana Biscotti

Recipe from Cookie Dough Fun published by Favorite Brand Name Recipes (its a booklet I got at a used book store...)

Ingredients

4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup margarine, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 bananas, mashed (about 3/4 cup)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups white or milk chocolate chips, melted (I ended up using milk chocolate chips, but you will notice the ingredients pic is of white chocolate chips... i was feeling indecisive ;)

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl, set aside. Beat together margarine and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, bananas and vanilla until well blended. Stir in flour mixture until combined.

Divide dough in half. On lightly floured surface, form each half into 12x3 inch logs. Don't worry too much if yours isn't perfect, that's the beauty of homemade! Place the logs on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. The recipe says you can put them on the same one, three inches apart. Mine wouldn't fit so I used 2 baking sheets.

Bake at 325 for 25 minutes or until firm to the touch and LIGHTLY brown.

Cool logs on wire rack 15 minutes.

Cut logs diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Place slices flat, in a single layer, on baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes more. Turn slices over; bake another ten minutes or until lightly browned on top and bottom of biscotti. Remove to wire rack; cool completely. Biscotti will harden as they cool.

Spread melted chocolate on one side of each biscotti. Place on baking sheets, chocolate side up, and chill 10 minutes or until chocolate is set.

Store in air-tight container in cool area. These keep for up to a week!

Happy dunking!