You're not going to toss those are you?

I am a pretty frugal guy when it comes to food.  I am not quick to throw things away.  You know those "sell by" dates on dairy containers?  I largely ignore them and rely on my nose to tell me if my milk is still good to drink or not.  With cheese, I will cut off the mold, and use it.  However, when it comes to produce, I am a bit less frugal.  Who wants to eat a brown wilted piece of lettuce or a mushy old strawberry?  Life's too short for that.  However, there is one type of produce, that I will almost never chuck, no matter how nasty it looks, and that is bananas.

Although I hate eating over-ripe bananas out of hand, they are fantastic in baked goods.  When they are really ripe, their flavor comes through much more in breads and cakes.  My favorite use for them is as the base for a tasty muffin.

The recipe I use evolved from a recipe that appears in Beth Hensperger's book The Bread Bible.  Her version is a delicious, sweet muffin, with a slight kick of cinnamon, and a nice crunchy streusel topping.   I have made a few, very small, tweaks which change up the flavor a bit making a more unusual tasting end product.  To the streusel, I add about a 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt, which gives the topping a slight salty taste, sort of reminiscent of a salted caramel.  To the batter, I nix the cinnamon, and add some ground cardamom instead.  If you are not familiar with it, cardamom is a spice that is quite popular in Indian cooking.  I love what it does to sweets.

I baked up a batch this evening using some bananas that were a day or two past their prime, having lost their ability to hold their shape.  The recipe is pretty simple.  I made them with the help of my five year old daughter, which turned a 30 minute process into something closer to an hour, but cooking with your kids is important.

The first thing you need to do is make a streusel topping, which is just some flour, sugar, butter, and the  kosher salt, which are combined with a pastry blender, until the butter is completely incorporated and the mixture resembles moist sand.

Next you mash up your bananas, which with bananas as old as these, goes pretty quick.  Don't mash them down too far.  You should still see a few small chunks of banana.

Next you combine some eggs, oil, and sugar with a whisk, until the mixture is pale yellow in color.  You want to take some time with this step, to work some air into the mixture, which makes for a nice puffy muffin.

Then you add in your bananas, and your dry ingredients.

Scoop the batter into a greased muffin pan (an ice cream scooper works really well for that task), top the muffins with the streusel topping, and they are ready for the oven.

Bake until golden brown and a cake tester (who has one of those?) or a toothpick comes out clean.

Banana Muffins

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I like peanut)

2 eggs

1 1/3 cups (3 medium) mashed very ripe bananas

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. ground cardamom

1/4 tsp. table salt

3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/4 cup shredded coconut (optional but tasty)

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour

4 tbsp. chilled unsalted butter

1/4 - 1/3 tsp. kosher salt (I just add a hefty pinch, but for the recipe I've measured how much I pick up in a pinch, and it is a bit over 1/4 tsp.)

1. Prepare the streusel:  Combine the sugar, salt, and flour, then using a pastry blender or your fingers, work in the butter until coarse crumbs are formed.  Set aside.
2. Using a whisk, beat the sugar, oil, and eggs until light and foamy.  Add the mashed bananas and mix until incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients, and the nuts.  Add the banana mixture, an stir with a spatula until just moistened.
4. Spoon into greased muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 of the way to the top.  Top each with a tablespoon or so of the streusel topping.  Be generous, but you may still have extra topping.  If you do, wad what is left into a ball and eat that now.
5. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20 - 25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
6. Cool muffins for 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer them to a rack to cool.  

Makes 10 - 12 muffins.

Bella helping with cleanup.

Enjoy.