Banana Nut Muffins

The only time I ever buy bananas at the grocery store is when I'm craving banana bread, unfortunately that also means I have to wait to fulfill my craving until the bananas are perfectly ripe and brown. Thankfully, the recipe that follows made the wait worth it! This recipe is from the cookbook "Bite Me" by the sisters Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat.  The cookbook is full of funny pictures, entertaining quotes about food, and yummy recipes. For these banana nut muffins, I used their recipe for Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread. I substituted pecans for chocolate chips (blasphemy if you ask me, but for some reason my family objected the last time I made chocolate chip banana bread!). I also added cinnamon! This is also a tiny bit lighter than normal, since half of the butter is replaced with light sour cream.

Banana Nut Muffins

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3-4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup sour cream (I used light sour cream)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350 F
2) Using an electric mixer, cream together sugar and butter on medium speed until well blended, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addtion. Add mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Beat on low speed until blended, about 30 seconds. With a wooden spoon, stir in flour baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pecans just until moistened and the flour has disappeared. Scoop batter into lined muffin tins.

3) Bake 23-25 minutes, until lightly browned and until the muffin springs back when gently pressed on top. Cool 10 minutes before removing to wire rack.

Yield: 24 muffins