Banana Crunch Muffins

Hi Friends!

Maggie here, and I couldn’t be more excited that we are finally experiencing some fall weather here in the south! The fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the changing of the leaves, having a fire in my old brick fireplace, and all of the things that come with the changing of the season. It’s a beautiful time to reflect on the faithfulness of the Lord, and indulge in the best baking season!

I know most of us who love fall immediately turn to pumpkin-flavored goodies when the leaves start to change, but I want to shake things up a bit. I have a favorite (pumpkin-free) muffin that I absolutely have to share with you. These Banana Crunch Muffins are a favorite in my house in the fall and a definite go-to for when I have guests. And they usually don’t last very long!

Banana Crunch Muffins (Serves 12)

Muffin Ingredients:

1 ½ cups flour, measured correctly

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt (I cook and bake with kosher salt)

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup melted butter

Crunch Topping Ingredients:

½ cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 tablespoons oats

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line muffin tin with paper or foil liners.

Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix together on low to medium speed the mashed banana, sugar, egg, vanilla, and melted butter. (You can use either a hand or stand mixer.)

Add wet ingredients to your flour mixture and stir just until all ingredients are moistened. Do not over mix! (See baking tips below.)

Using a ¼ measuring cup or ice cream scoop divide the batter into 12 muffin cups.

In a small bowl, stir together all Crunch Topping ingredients. Top each muffin with one tablespoon of the mixture. (My awesome husband was helping me out and making the crunch topping for me as I made this post. I forgot to tell him to add oats, so your topping may look a little different than my pictures!)

Bake 18-20 minutes.

And, as always, here are a few baking tips to take along with you!

Measuring flour and other dry ingredients is important for your recipes to come out best! The proper way to measure flour is to use a spoon to scoop flour into your measuring cup, then use a knife or scraper to level off the top of your measuring cup. This should get your measurements just right!

When making muffins it’s always super important that you do not over-mix your batter. If you do over-mix, you end up overworking the gluten, and will cause your muffins not to rise well, also making them more dense rather than light and fluffy.

When you are making muffins, you want to bake the batter right away, following ingredient portions and mixing instructions carefully. If you do not, the leavening components, like baking powder and baking soda, will have already reacted in the batter before you baked it, resulting in a very dense muffin.

I hope you love these tasty treats as much as my family and I do. Don’t forget to snap a picture and tag us on Instagram (or use our hashtag #tfptalk) as you and your loved ones enjoy these delicious holiday goodies along with us!

Happy Fall, Yall!