Banana Muffins...Banana & Pumpkin Muffins

Fall weather is FINALLY beginning to make an appearance here in so cal. The gloomy weather makes me want to craft, bake, organize, and light my vanilla and apple berry spice candles. ::sigh:: How I love the fall and winter months. No longer do I cringe at the thought of turning on the oven. My house smells like yummy fall candles and freshly baking banana muffins.

Banana eating is a phase in our household. Sometimes the whole bunch is eaten within a few days, other times they sit, and sit, and sit in the fruit basket. I hate tossing them, but alas they must go before the gnats start to populate my kitchen. Usually I have three or four bananas left... just enough to make one loaf of bread. Granted the loaf is easier to make than the muffins, but I feel that the muffins are cooked more thoroughly and I'm not left with a mushy-centered banana loaf. This time I had an entire bunch, 6 bananas, left. It was either bake or toss them, so I opted for a lot of baking today. I'm going to try freezing some of them to see if I can prolong their little muffin lives for a breakfast next week. I'll let you know how that works out.

Since I had so many bananas that were seeing their final day, I have not one, but two recipes to share with you today. I made a looooot of muffins.

The first recipe is for Banana Muffins. This recipe is in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook: mentioned in the sidebar of my blog. If you don't have access to this cookbook, here's the recipe:

Makes 1 loaf or 16 muffins.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (4-5 medium bananas)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil (I use canola.)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts. Optional. (I don't use them because I'm allergic.)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a cupcake/muffin tin. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients (except sugar).
In another bowl combine eggs, sugar, and oil. Mix well. Add bananas.
Combine with dry ingredient mixture. Do NOT over mix. The batter should be lumpy.

Bake for 15-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
If you use a loaf pan, bake for about 60+ minutes.
(When I was making the loaf, the top would almost burn before the middle was done cooking. If this happens, place some tin foil, loosely, over the top after about 45 to 60 minutes.)

Recipe 2: Banana Pumpkin Muffins

Here is the original recipe. I made some adjustments after I tasted the batter. Since it's very similar to the Banana Bread Muffins, I used the "seasoning" from that recipe in this one. Here are my ingredients along with the directions from Taste of Home (see link above). Some stuff I substituted or added because I didn't have what it called for.

Makes 16 muffins.

1 stick softened butter (1/2 cup)

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup mashed bananas (2 medium bananas)

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt (Originally 1/2 tsp, but if you use salted butter you need to adjust the salt)

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Mix in bananas, pumpkin, and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.

Combine wet and dry mixtures.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Mine took 31 minutes.

Enjoy!