Love in a box...Banana Berry Cinnamon Muffins

Anyone who went to college in the Boston area in the mid-80’s might remember eating muffins. Whether it was in the dining hall or at the local bakery, muffins were a big thing at that time. With many of us becoming more health conscious or wary of carbohydrates they seem to have become less of a thing in my daily life. I still really enjoy a good muffin - even the bottom portion (who doesn’t remember the Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Elaine “popped the tops off”).

In this era of Corona cooking, I realized I had way too many rotting bananas sitting on my counter. I couldn’t bear to make a banana bread. I’m just not that big a fan of it to be quite honest. I googled banana berry muffin and an oldie but goodie popped up from The Joy of Cooking. I tweaked the ingredients and ratios and voila!

One last tip they had was if you have a lot of bananas you can peel and mash them and stir in 1 Teaspoon of lemon juice for each banana and freeze in an airtight container or plastic bag.

It gave me great comfort to be able to deliver these muffins to not one but two friends who have lost relatives in the midst of this pandemic.

Love in a box.

Ingredients

1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

2 large ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup). I actually used 3 because I had 3. I liked the way they turned out

1 cup of berries - you can do one kind or assorted. I used blueberries, raspberries & strawberries. Just cut the strawberries into pieces about the same size as the other berries.

2 1/4 cups AP Flour

3/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar

1 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 - 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon (I like a lot of cinnamon. I would taste the better after you add the first Tablespoon). You can always add more.

1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Either line a muffin tin with paper liners or generously spray the muffin cups with a vegetable spray

In a small saucepan melt the butter. You can also melt it in a microwave in a bowl. Let cool.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas and vanilla. Add the melted butter and stir.

In another bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder & baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Fold in the berries gently, making sure they are coated with flour. (This apparently helps keep them from sinking during the baking - good tip from Joy of Cooking - who knew?) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine. Don’t over mix or it will become a bit tough. You want your muffins to be fluffy :).

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Place in the oven. Check them after 20 minutes with a toothpick inserted into the middle - you want it to come out dry. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I save boxes so I have different sizes available. This box was a sunglass box.