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I believe I first saw this recipe at BakeBakeBake. It sounded like such a delicious muffin and knew I would have to try it. Lo and behold, a couple days later our counter top was littered with some overripe bananas! Perfect! I made these muffins Monday evening and I found it incredibly funny that I woke up that morning to find a version of these muffins posted on Cathlin Cooks. I loooove her blog. She always has great recipes and pictures, and makes an effort to healthy-fy [I love making up my own words, don't I?] her baking.
I changed up this recipe to fit my own preferences, but the original can be found here.
Pina Colada Muffins
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract3/4 teaspoons rum
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup honey2 large eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoons baking soda3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple
shredded coconut [mine was sweetened]
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare muffin tins.
In a large bowl, beat together the applesauce, brown sugar, vanilla, and rum. In a separate bowl, combine mashed bananas, eggs, and honey. Add to the sugar mixture. Beat until thoroughly combined.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir into banana mixture, then add the pineapple.
Spoon the batter into muffin cups and top each muffin with coconut [yum!].
Bake muffins for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and cool in tins for a few minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.
These muffins are delicious! Absolutely delicious! They are so, so moist and flavorful. The whole wheat flour provides a different, heartier texture that I really do enjoy in this muffin. You can't even tell applesauce was used in place of the butter and I think it helps provide additional moisture to the muffin. If I could change anything about the recipe, I would perhaps add more pineapple and DEFINITELY add more coconut. I find it a little funny that I want to pile these up with coconut when maybe a year or so ago I would have screamed at the thought of coconut being in my food. Ahh, how things change.
Just yesterday I returned from a visit with my boyfriend. When we're not in school we don't really get to see each other all that often because of the distance [about a two hour drive]. I love taking a little something special down to his family when I visit and I usually go with brownies. This time I was feeling daring [that's definitely not the word to use here, but it sounds more exciting] and decided I would go with some cupcakes instead. We had some over-ripe bananas hanging out in the refrigerator so I figured I'd use those up and make some banana chocolate chip cupcakes. Again, I turned to my new cupcake book for the recipe.
Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
adapted from 100 Best Cupcake Recipes
2 cups plus 4 tablespoons cake flour [eliminate the extra tablespoons if using regular flour]1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup vegetable oil2 eggs1/4 cup milk [I used buttermilk]
1 teaspoon vanilla2 medium mashed bananas [about 1 cup]
chocolate chips [I didn't measure these out, but rather tossed them in to my liking]
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin cups with baking cups.
Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice in a large bowl. Add oil, eggs, milk and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes or until well blended. Beat in bananas until well blended. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling three-fourths full.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.I seriously wish you could smell the aroma these cupcakes gave off while they baked. The cinnamon and the allspice were so fragrant and I couldn't wait to try one of these...so I didn't! I called my sister over to help me taste-test the cupcakes [we had to make sure they were good enough to send down to Bryce's family] and she was more than happy to oblige.
I loved the texture of these. They were incredibly moist from the banana and oil and the spices complimented the banana quite well. The chocolate chips I used were a little dark and I think milk chocolate chips would have been a better match for this cake.
So now...frosting...We were running a little low on stick butter and I take full responsibility for this because of my obsessive baking since returning home from school. So due to that and the fact that I didn't want to wait for butter to soften, I decided to go with a frosting that didn't require butter. I ended up choosing the marshmallow frosting I used on the s'more cupcakes because I figured that would go pretty well with banana and chocolate. Well...it was okay. I would have preferred a chocolate frosting or even a peanut butter frosting [which Bryce's mom would have avoided]. But even though I wasn't completely impressed with the combination, everyone else seemed to really enjoy them. Also, the piping on these cupcakes was awesome. I was so proud of myself afterwards. It made me want to go out and buy more tips to try!
I went on a bit of a baking spree this past Saturday. My sister needed some sort of baked good for an event and I, of course, volunteered. We had two incredibly over-ripe bananas, so I figured I would try a recipe I found for these bars. I wouldn't really call them blondies but I also wouldn't call them cookie bars...so I'm not too sure what they are, other than amazingly easy and delicious.
2 eggs, beaten until frothy
3/4 c sugar
1 c flour
1/2 c butter or margarine, softened
1 over ripe banana
1/2 c peanut butter
1c chocolate chips
I sort of added the ingredients in whatever order I seemed fit and combined until smooth. You can bake them in a greased 8x8, 9x9, or 7.5x12 pan at 370 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes. The original recipe suggests turning once halfway through baking, so I did and everything was evenly baked. I baked mine for about 25 minutes because they batter was much thinner when spread in a 7.5x12 pan rather than a 9x9 pan. To test for doneness [yes, I'm aware that isn't a real word but I'll use it anyway] insert a knife into the middle and if it comes out clean, they're done!
These bars are absolutely delicious and not too sweet, which is a nice change of pace for my family. And, surprisingly, my sister has already requested more. She's the picky eater of the family and I really did not expect HER to enjoy these. Now we're just waiting for our latest batch of bananas to ripen enough for more of these bars!
Now, I did say Saturday was a baking spree and these bars themselves don't quite constitute the use of that word. While the bars were amazing, they didn't make a large amount so I had to bake something else...which I will post about later :-]
