Oh, what to do with those overripe bananas?? Usually we bake banana bread, but instead let’s look at a delicious muffin recipe from the “Taste of Home” from University of Massachusetts Dining. UMASS dining is listed as number 1 in the nation for excellence.I adapted this recipe a bit. As bananas ripen their sugar content increases, so they are very sweet. I reduced the amount of sugar from 2 cups to 1/2 cup and I believe that the next time I would reduce it even further to 1/3 cup.
Banana Blueberry Muffins
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch of cinnamon, or to taste
1 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
5 medium over-riped bananas, mashed
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup blueberries
1 cup ground walnuts (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 18 muffins cups with baking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, sea salt, baking soda and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix together the salt, sugar and bananas. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture, blueberries and walnuts.
3. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out dry, about 25 minutes.
My childhood friend Irene and I starting making this recipe when we were in our early teens. I can’t imagine how many of these I have made. It came from a Pillsbury Booklet. The story goes that in 1954 a 15-year-old Chicago girl named Renny Powell submitted a blueberry coffee cake recipe to the Pillsbury $100,000 Recipe & Baking Contest (precursor to the Pillsbury Bake-Off). She came in second place in the youth division for her creation. She gave it the special name, Boy Bait, in honor of its powers with the opposite sex. This past weekend I brought out the recipe and it taste just as good today as my memories of times past. There are several adaptation of this on the internet, but none could possibly be as delicious as this. The secret to its lightness is the whipped egg white that must be gently folded into the batter. Do not over mix the batter!
Once the batter is spread in a 9 x 13-inch pan, I drop as many blueberries as possible on top. The picture below shows how it should look. Once you put the blueberries on top, sprinkle the reserved topping over the batter.
Blueberries on top of batter
