All Roads Lead to the Kitchen: Banana Muffins

For the past couple of years, my oldest has requested that I bring muffins to a Christmas Eve breakfast for the swim team. The team swims 100/100's first thing in the morning and get out of the pool famished. Most of the parents bring something from casseroles to biscuits and gravy to fruit to chocolate milk. I've brought other things over the years, but apparently I make the best muffins. How can I refuse?

This year I brought a dozen each of three different kinds. My Brown Butter Blueberry Crumb Muffins (which I always promise you the recipe for and still haven't shared) and Cinnamon-Sugar Donut Muffins are "required", but I wanted to throw in another kind this year. My swimmer loves banana bread and muffins, so I decided that these Banana Streusel Muffins were the way to go.

The theme these week at I Heart Cooking Clubs is Family Favorites...and yes, we're still cooking with Nigella. A perennial favorite in our house is Banana Bread. Although I rarely stray from our usual recipe, I decided why not do something wild and crazy!? So, I made a different banana bread...well, muffin in this case...recipe. Gasp! And you know, we really liked it. It was different from our norm...the norm being a bit sweeter and more moist...and most of all comfortable. Nigella's version simply used honey as the sole sweetener (aside from the natural sweetness of the nanners). The flavor was understated and homey and somewhat more "natural" than ours. This actually made me wonder if the kiddos would like them as much. But I needn't have worried. You see this towering bowl of mini muffins....

...it didn't tower for long! I made them over the weekend and between the running in and out of the house and grabbing one each time they made a pass...they made quick work of them! Thanks Nigella for expanding my banana quick bread horizons. I am not abandoning the recipe that has been a favorite for generations, but I am going to use your recipes when I make mini-muffins for sure!

Banana Muffins

from How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

2 Tbs. Unsalted Butter

1/4 c. (2 oozingly, bulgingly heaping Tbs) clear Honey

1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract

2 large, very ripe Bananas

1 heaping tsp. Baking Powder ...for some reason this confuses me...how heaping!? I was taught to always level, Nigella. Why do you make me pull hairs!

~9 oz. self-rising flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Put the butter, honey and vanilla in a pan on a low heat to melt, then remove and set aside for a few minutes. Mash the bananas.

In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix the melted butter mixture with the bananas and then mix that into the dry ingredients. Don't over mix: just stir a couple of times; you will have a not terribly attractive lumpy sludge, but don't worry about it LOL.

Put paper cups in muffin tins if using and fill about 2/3 full of mixture. I just used some spray. (~10 regular size muffins or 24 mini's....but I only got 20 minis)

Put in oven and cook for about 25 minutes...um, Nigella...why do you not give a separate time for the minis? These would turn to powder in that amount of time. My minis took roughly 10 minutes. Leave in pans for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Pop in mouth each time you walk past.

Just in case I wasn't obvious up there...I do want to re-iterate that these muffins are not too sweet and fairly dry. Good for some, not for others...