Strawberry Banana Muffins

For the third and last day of breakfasts starting with a letter from the range of E-N, I again chose letter M for muffins. Muffins are quick breads baked in cups; in cupcake or muffin pans. Unlike cupcakes, preparation of muffins involves mixing together dry ingredients with wet ingredients and then baking in muffin pans. American muffins look like cupcakes and these can be both savory and sweet. Sweet ones have fruits and/or nuts in it and, the savory ones are baked with corn and/or cheese with some spicy spices. Some muffins are flat and round shaped bread which has their origins to United Kingdom and are called English Muffins, which I used to make the McMuffin.

Today it is strawberry banana muffins. The first time I baked these muffins was 3 years ago for a baking group I was part of. That day I took the muffins to a get together and everyone liked them. One of my friend's toddler who does not like sweets loved these muffins. However, I was not really satisfied with the muffins and did not post the recipe on the blog.

I met the same friend for lunch last Friday and thought of baking these muffins. I shared some of the muffin with her and another friend. The feedback I got back was that their children liked the muffins and this time even I did 🙂

I am not a big fan of bananas and when growing up I did not mind the fruit in desserts though. But in the last few years, that changed I just could not even stand the smell of it. I know it is psychological and wanted to change it and slowly started including bananas in sweets. The first was sel roti I tried for Sikkim during the mega marathon back in April. The flavor was not that bad at all. In fact I liked the flavor a lot and thought of giving bananas and these muffins another chance by baking them again. I am slowly beginning to like banana flavor but I still cannot get myself to eat a banana as it is.

I baked these muffins from Joy of Baking and followed the recipe exactly as given, skipping cinnamon powder. I baked in mini cupcake pans. I prefer mini muffins to regular muffins and also since I was going to share some of the muffins with my friends for their kids, I thought even the kids would love the mini muffins to regular muffins. The recipe says it yields a dozen regular size muffins and I got 3 dozen mini muffins with the same recipe.

Source: Joy of Baking
Total Time: 30 - 36 minutes
Preparation: 15 - 20 minutes
Baking Time: 15 – 16 minutes
Yields: 1 dozen regular muffins or 3 dozen mini-muffins

Ingredients:

• ½ cup or 1 stick or 113 grams Unsalted Butter, melted
• 2 large Eggs lightly beaten at room temperature (I left them on the countertop for couple of hours)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract or Essence
• 2 large ripe Bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup or 240 ml Strawberries cut into bite size pieces (about 8 medium – large strawberries)
• 2 ¼ cups or 295 grams All Purpose Flour
• ¾ cup or 165 grams light brown sugar (I used half dark brown sugar and half regular white granulated sugar)
• 1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder
• ¼ tsp. Baking Soda
• ½ tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon (opt.) (I did not use)

Preparation:

• Melt the butter in a saucepan and let it cool to room temperature.
• Line a muffin pan with liners or spray the cups of the pan with vegetable spray or lightly butter the muffin pan. If making regular size muffins, will need a 12 muffins/cupcakes pan or 3 dozen mini muffins / cupcakes pan. I used 1 dozen and 2 dozen mini muffin pans.
• Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
• In small bowl whisk together eggs, mashed banana and vanilla extract. Add melted butter and mix to combine. Keep aside.
• In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add cinnamon if using. Fold in the strawberries making sure they are coated with flour. This helps preventing the berries from sinking to teh bottom of the muffin during baking.
• Add the eggs-banana mixture to dry ingredients and stir until the ingredients are just mixed. Do not over mix and it could lead to hard muffins. I spatula will suffice to mix up all the ingredients. Whisk can also be used but the strawberry pieces could get suck in the whisk wires.
• Fill the muffin cups using 2 spoons until ¾th of the cup. If baking regular muffins, ice-cream scoop can also be used. Place the muffin pan(s) in the oven and bake for 16 – 20 minutes. For mini muffins I baked for 16 minutes or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. For regular muffins, recipe says bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
• Transfer to a wire rack and cool. Muffins can be stored for few days at room temperature or can be frozen in a Ziploc bag.

Note:

• Temperatures vary from oven to oven and do a tooth pick test to check for doneness.

Tip (from Joy of Baking)

• “For times when you have overripe bananas and don't want to bake with them right away, you can freeze them whole (in their peels), wrapped airtight, for up to 6 months. Or you can peel and mash them, stir in 1 teaspoon lemon juice for each banana, and freeze in an airtight container or bag. Then you are ready to make banana muffins anytime.”