Banana Coconut Muffins

Coconut is one of those things that I go in and out of enjoying.

I also tend to forget it exists until it pops up again on my radar.

So when I saw the recipe for Banana Coconut Muffins (aka, Five Kinds of Awesome) over at the No Slivers Here blog, I figured it was time to re-incorporate coconut into my cooking.

And these.are.that.good.

I could’ve eaten them all as soon as they came out of the oven! YUM!

I swear, a little dollop of whipped cream on top, and these bad boys would taste like pie!

Banana Coconut Muffins

(http://www.epicurious.com/, by way of No Slivers Here blog)

Note: The recipe says it makes 8, 1/2″ deep muffins. But I never buy specialty sized muffins tins, so I used my standard 12-muffin tin. I got 10 muffins.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 very ripe bananas, mashed (3/4 cup)

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted

2/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Directions

– Preheat oven to 375°F. Line muffin cups with liners.

– Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

– Whisk together bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and 1/2 cup coconut in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened.
– Divide batter among lined muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup coconut.

– Bake until muffins are puffed and golden, about 25 minutes.

– Transfer muffins to a rack and cool slightly.

Edit: I’ve entered this recipe in Joelen’s Culinary Adventures blog event — Marvelous Muffins!

Family-Recipe Banana Bread

Mmmm…I’ve made many an internet-recipe-banana-bread — but nothing tops the family recipe!

I made this banana bread into muffins (So DH could easily share with co-workers), but it makes a darn good bread loaf as well. I’ve included baking instructions for both.

Banana Bread

(Family Recipe)

1/4 cup soft shortening (I used butter)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2/3 cup mashed bananas (I used about 3 bananas)

3 tablespoons sour milk/buttermilk (I used regular milk today and it was fine)

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup finely chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

– Mix together shortening and sugar

– Add egg, mashed bananas, and buttermilk

– Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

– For 1 loaf of banana bread: generously grease a bread pan (grandma’s directions say to then line the loaf pan with two-thickness of wax paper, and grease the wax paper.) Add batter. Bake 1 hour (start checking it at about 50 minutes)

– For 12 muffins: line muffin tin with paper liners, or, grease generously. Load tins with batter and bake for 25-30 minutes.

I sprinkled mine with a little bit of large-granule sugar to make them pretty

3-Banana Banana Bread!

Ahhh…the beauty that is leftover bananas for banana bread. DH only likes them green, and I can only eat so many before they are too brown for my tastes.

I had only 3 leftover bananas, and the lovely ladies at the What’s For Dinner? board on thenest.com were kind enough to provide me with this recipe.
3-Banana Bread
(Original recipe is in Katie D’s blog)

**Have all ingredients at room temperature**

1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
5 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 c. sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. mashed very ripe bananas (I used 3 medium-sized bananas)
optional: 1/2 c. coarsely chopped walnuts (I left these out — simply because I didn’t have any!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare loaf pan.
Whisk together flour, salt, soda, and powder in a medium bowl and set asdie.
In large bowl, beat butter and sugar on high speed until lightened in color (2-3 mins).
Beat in flour mixture just until blended and the consistency of brown sugar.(**this is katie’s wording…I didn’t think it looked like the consistency of brown sugar, so I just made sure it was all combined)
Slowly beat in eggs.
Fold bananas into mixture until just combined.
Spread mixture evenly into loaf pan.
Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let cool in pan on rack for 5 to 10 minutes before unmolding to cool completely on rack.

This is a deeeeeeeeeelicious banana bread recipe! (I made it last night, and DH has eaten over half of it already!)