Banana-Cinn Muffin

I have to share with you our love of bananas when it's still good and flawless.  But once it's turned spotted-brown, forget it.  My husband will start pushing it to us.  You know, eat it rather than dump it.

Right after I brought the kids to school this morning, I saw a piece of brown-spotted banana staring at me at the kitchen counter.  I took it on the table with me to remind me to find the best low-fat banana bread recipe I could.  It's very good for a breakfast or snack.

My brown-spotted banana.  Got another 2 to make up for what the recipe calls for.

I experimented on several recipes and modified them to make it cinn-ful. This was how it turned-out, and hopefully we'd all get a yummy finish product.

The reason why I chose this over others was because of its endless possibilities.  You can add in as much ingredient as you want without altering the measurement of the basic ingredients.  I used what's listed below and it came out scrumptious and moist.  Love it!  Can't wait for the kids to test it out and get thumbs up!

Ingredients: 

For the batter:

1-1/2 cup unbleached flour or whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 bananas, mashed

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 oz applesauce

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

For the cinnamon topping:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 Tbsp flour

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).  Lightly grease 10-12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.  I made use of baking cups instead.  Baking cups do not require muffin pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, and applesauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla.

4. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.

5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

6. In a small bowl, mix together all the cinnamon topping ingredients until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.  You have 2 options:

• Sprinkle cinnamon topping over muffins before baking the muffins.  This would melt and blend on the topmost layer, OR
• Wait for the last 5 minutes of baking time before you sprinkle the cinnamon topping to make it appear like crumbs once baking time is done.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

This was how the muffins turned out when the cinnamon-butter topping
was sprinkled at the same time the muffins were baking.

Yields: 10 standard muffins or 19 muffins using the baking cups.

Next time, I'll be experimenting on Nutella Banana Muffins.
I heard they're heavenly as well.