Banana Bread Muffins

Baking a great banana bread recipe into muffin form somehow makes something so simple seem a little more special. I highly recommend you do this, but without making a few adjustments, you'll often end up with sunken, sad–looking muffins. Nobody likes sad muffins, so I have you covered with this recipe. It's my favorite banana bread recipe with the leavening agents lightly tweaked to achieve dramatically tall muffins. To justify eating these as breakfast, I like to substitute half of the all purpose flour for whole wheat flour.

Yield: 12 standard muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 or 3 ripe bananas

• 5 and 1/2 tablespoons (75g) melted butter

• 1/2 - 1 cup sugar (100-200g) (I usually use right around 3/4 cup but I adjust according to the ripeness of my bananas)

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• Pinch of salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 and 1/2 cup (200g) all purpose flour (I like subbing in half whole wheat flour for a heartier muffin)

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Pinch ground cloves (optional)

• Chocolate chips (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F. Use a pastry brush to liberally butter a standard 12 well muffin pan or line it with muffin liners.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, mash the bananas with a fork or a potato masher.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients in the order in which they are listed, whisking briefly between each addition.

4. Use a large ice cream scoop to fill each well about 2/3 of the way up in the prepared pan. When you scrape every last bit of batter, you'll have just enough for 12. Sprinkle the tops of each with sparkling sugar or extra chocolate chips.

5. Bake 16-18 minutes, until the muffins are puffed tall and spring back when lightly pressed on top.

6. Let the muffins cool 5 minutes in the pan before using an offset spatula or a pairing knife to loosen the sides and remove the muffins. Enjoy warm, or set to cool completely to room temperature on a wire rack.