Cinnamon Banana Muffins

(scroll down for full recipe; makes 12 muffins)

Ever have bananas turn brown before you have the chance to eat them? Well, I have never liked bananas, but I have always heard that overripe ones are great for baking into bread. So after Jared's giant Costco bunch literally fell apart, I decided to make cinnamon sugar banana muffins. I can tolerate banana bread, but I knew it would be even better with extra sugar on top.

First, take four bananas, peel, and mash them. I had to cut off a couple of small brown spots and then I mashed the bananas with my knuckles. Don't worry, they were clean!

Next, add butter, sugar, an egg, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and flour. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar for the topping. Now you're ready to go!

Fill muffin cups about 1/3 of the way with muffin batter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, top with more muffin batter and more cinnamon sugar. Your muffins will have four layers. And your muffin pan will have lots of sugar sprinkled all over it.

Bake in an oven preheated to 350°F for 25 minutes, and let cool. You now have twelve very moist muffins to share or throw in the freezer for later when you need a snack. Just kidding, who actually does that?!

Muffin Mixture

4 overripe bananas, smashed

1/3 C. butter, melted

3/4 C. sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 C. flour

Cinnamon Sugar

1/3 C. sugar

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare muffin pan with paper liners

2. Mix bananas, melted butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl

3. Add baking soda, salt, and flour, and gently stir

4. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon 

5. Fill the muffin liners 1/3 of the way with muffin mixture

6. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar onto the muffins, then top with remaining muffin mixture and cinnamon sugar

7. Bake for 25 minutes, cool, and enjoy!

Nutrition

I attempted to calculate calories per muffin, and each one has about 220. To decrease this, use one less banana and less cinnamon sugar. You can also substitute some or all of the butter with applesauce.