26 January 2009

Banana Carrot Walnut Muffins




Two weeks ago, I bought bananas at the beginning of the week so they would get ripe and I could make some homemade banana nut muffins. By Saturday of the same week, there was only one banana left! Apparently Andrew likes bananas more than I thought.

I decided I still wanted to make banana muffins, but knew I would need something to bulk up the muffins. I had some large carrots left in the fridge, so I typed "banana carrot muffins" into Google and found an interesting recipe.

The carrot and banana blend nicely - the carrot is really a background flavor, while the cinnamon and banana steal the show. I really liked the addition of walnuts - they give these muffins a carrot cake type feel.

Below is my adapted recipe.


Banana Carrot Walnut Muffins

2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 large mashed ripe banana
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. Canola oil
2 eggs
1 c. finely grated carrots
2/3 c. chopped walnuts

Mix together first four ingredients in a medium size bowl, set aside.

In the bowl of your mixer, combine bananas, sugar, oil, and eggs. Beat at medium speed (#4 on a KA mixer).



Stir in dry ingredients. When fully combined, add carrots and walnuts and mix thoroughly.




Bake at 350 for 18 minutes.


The recipe says you get 2 dozen muffins - this is absolutely a lie. You will be lucky to get 18 very small muffins. If I had it to do over, I would have made just 12 muffins so that one would suffice for breakfast. As they are now, eating one isn't quite enough, but two makes me feel tubby.

Despite the miniature proportions, I love these muffins. I kept five of them on the counter for breakfast that week and froze the rest. To freeze muffins, wrap individually in plastic wrap and seal in a food storage bag in the freezer.




Don't be nervous about freezing muffins or anything else. As my Nonnie always says, "baked goods are the only thing that come out of the freezer better than when they went in." She's right - these muffins are moister and more flavorful after being frozen.




2 comments:

What's Cookin Chicago said...

This looks delicious! I like that combo and I may have to try this soon to use up the carrots I have!

gaga said...

Banana and carrots, huh? Sounds interesting. And really healthy too! I'll keep this in mind the next time I have mushy bananas :)