Banana Crumb Muffins

What is this?!  Two posts in one day!?  Consider this my apology for being such a lackadaisical blogger so far this year.  I hope to be better this week, since it is vacation week!!!  Good lord, I think this may be the most needed February break ever.  So, while I have the time, I'm going to try to catch up on blogging my backlog of recipes, while definitely trying out some new ones :)

So, this recipe comes to you from last Saturday.  Like I said in other posts, we were in the middle of a blizzard last weekend.  This storm, bizarrely named Nemo, did not mess around.  It resulted in a snow day Friday for us, and a delay Monday.  Some schools around Massachusetts were closed for most of the week!  We got over 2 feet of snow and thus we were really stuck at home all weekend.  It was the perfect weekend to bake up something delicious for my bored, hungry family!

In my last post, I told you that I was baking king cakes for the church on Saturday.  My family kept complaining that they couldn't believe that I was baking things for anyone besides them, so I knew it would be a fun idea to secretly bake them something while I waited for the king cake doughs to rise.  Since I had three very ripe bananas, I decided to find something good to use them in.  A quick trip to Annie's Eats, and I found a recipe for banana crumb muffins that just so happened to call for three very ripe bananas.  Perfect.

This recipe only makes 9 muffins, which is actually really sad because these muffins are delicious!  You can really taste the banana, and the cinnamony, buttery crumb topping is such a great addition.  Miracle of all miracles: all of these muffins got eaten!  Everyone was so excited when I flounced into the room carrying a muffin tin full of hot, steaming muffins as a surprise!  And they were honestly gone by the end of the weekend.  They were quick, easy, and delicious, and I am currently eyeing some more ripe bananas and making plans for them ;)

Recipe:

banana crumb muffins
from Annie's Eats, originally from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

For the muffins:1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted 

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

Directions:1) Preheat oven to 375°.  Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers. 

2) In a large bowl, mix together 1 ½ cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, cinnamon and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.  

3) In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.   

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