If the holiday season's hustle and bustle has made you forget about your bananas and they're getting over-ripe and gross, don't you dare throw them out! Check out this wonderful recipe that combines sweet bananas and cranberries to make these delicious muffins–you can even give them away as gifts. I guarantee there's nothing your kids' teachers, or manicurist, or hairstylist appreciate more than something whipped up in your kitchen. Trust me!
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Banana and dried cranberry muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients:
8 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup dried cranberries mixed with 1 tsp. flour
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts (I use pecans)
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
Check out the gallery following to see the step-by-step instructions to making this delight.
Image via Enriqueta Lemoine
First things first: the bananas.
With a fork, mash the bananas until they're pureed.
Now, the dried cranberries get their turn.
It's the cranberries that give these muffins the festive touch. Make sure to add flour before adding them to the batter so they're distributed evenly.
Now the nuts shine.
For this recipe, I prefer pecans, but you can make it with whatever nut you prefer. Toast the pecans: Place in a 300ºF oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
Now use your electric mixer...
With an electric mixer on low speed, mix brown sugar and the butter until it becomes a creamy mixture. Add the egg and continue mixing. Add the flour, salt and baking powder and mix well. when everything is incorporated, add the mashed bananas and continue mixing.
Grate the nutmeg.
Freshly grated nutmeg lends these muffins a special spicy flavor.
Add the dried cranberries and the nuts.
After the grated nutmeg, add the dried cranberries and the toasted pecans. Then, mix at low speed so that everything is incorporated evenly.
Fill the cupcake pan with batter and bake.
Using an ice cream scoop, fill each lined cup two-thirds of the way with batter. I put a dried cranberry on top of each muffin so they look cute. Put the muffin pan to bake in a pre-heated overn at 350ºF.
As they bake, the smell will fill your house.
These are the muffins just out of the oven. Make sure to bake for 30 minutes or until they're starting to brown.
Now, let them cool.
Five minutes after you take them out of the oven, put the muffins on a baking rack to cool. In the meantime, prep your icing with confectioners sugar and the juice of one lime or lemon. Mix well.
And it's time to decorate!
Put the icing in a plastic sandwich bag and push it all the way to one corner. The idea is to recreate an icing bag with a sandwich bag. Cut a small hole in the corner and squeeze the icing out the decorate your muffins. I did this square pattern, but get creative and make them pop!
