Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup bananas (2 large very ripe bananas, mashed)
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped fine
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375℉.
- In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of soft butter and 1 cup sugar until smooth. Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup of mashed bananas, 2 eggs, and 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. Mix thoroughly.
- In a separate bowl, mix together 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1 1/2 cups of flour. Add the combined dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until all the flour is combined.
- Spoon 1 1/2 tbsp of batter into cupcake liners. Aim to fill the liners no more than 2/3 full or they will over flow when they bake. Top with more finely chopped walnuts.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minute or until golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.
- Cool completely before eating.
Moist Banana Nut Muffins that are super easy to make! Topped with chopped walnuts, these sweet and crunchy muffins are best way to start your day. The thing that is so awesome about making banana nut muffins is that you get much more of that delicious crunchy crust than you would from a loaf.
Another benefit of making banana nut muffins over banana nut bread is that when you’re preparing this as a loaf, you run the risk of miscalculating the bake time. It’s very easy to end up with a banana nut bread that’s overdone on the edges but gooey in the middle. It’s also easier to bake up a batch of muffins and give them away to your friends and neighbors than it is to make several loaves—especially when your oven is the size of a shoe box!
Have black bananas? Make banana bread!
Whether you’re making banana bread or banana nut muffins, the most important ingredient is black bananas. As bananas ripen, the starch in the fruit is converted to sugar. This process also makes the banana itself much softer and easier to mash. Using black bananas in your banana nut muffins means that you’ll end up with sweeter and highly flavorful muffins that have an even distribution of banana throughout.
Be warned: you want to use your black bananas before the flesh itself turns black. A few little brown spots is fine, but if the entire banana is black throughout, that means that you waited too long and the fruit is spoiled.
Baking Banana Nut Muffins in a Tiny Kitchen
The hardest part about baking muffins in a tiny kitchen is knowing your oven. Baking is a sensitive task and every time you open the door, regardless of the size of the oven, you are going to lose precious heat. The smaller your oven, the more heat you’re going to lose. I recommend making 1 or 2 test muffins first just to get a sense of the timing for your specific equipment.
I have a standard RV convection oven / microwave combination unit. In order to get perfect muffins every time, I preheat to 425℉ with the tray in the oven. Why? Because I know I’m going to lose about 50℉ as soon as I open the door! Once the oven is hot, I remove the tray and reset the preheat while I get all my cupcake liners filled. Finally, when I’m ready to bake, I quickly put the tray back in the oven and set it to bake at 375℉ for 23-24 minutes. It’s perfect every time.
With smaller oven, you will also be baking in batches—which can be annoying. I recommend having something else to do that you can be easily interrupted from (like writing blog articles!) In my oven, I can comfortably make 6 muffins at a time using the rings from mason jar lids and silicone cupcake liners.
When making banana nut muffins, the dishes will include a large bowl, mixing spoon, measuring cups, a cutting board and knife (if you’re chopping your own walnuts), and cupcake liners. The clean up is really easy if you use a little hot water to rinse off the dishes before you wash them.
That’s it!
Give this recipe for Banana Nut Muffins a shot and let me know what you think. Don’t forget to come back and give me your rating. If you have any questions or find other substitutions that are yummy, feel free to add those in your comments! As always, if you like this recipe, please share it on social media so other people know about it too. Let’s eat!
