Recycled Banana Muffins

I’m not one to waste anything especially when I’ve paid good money and allocated space on the boat; two resources which are limited in my world. However it never seems to fail, one banana seems to over ripen before I can eat it. I needed to find a way to recycle these misfit bananas. At first I looked at banana bread but most recipes had too many ingredients and the cook time violated my 30 minute rule by like an hour. Then I found a banana muffin recipe with a nice short list of ingredients and shorter cook time.

Mini Banana Muffin and Abraham Lincoln for scale.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 large ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts(walnuts/pecans/etc)

Extra Info:
Cook time:

• 15 minutes of prep, 10-12 minutes cook time

• approximately 48 mini muffins

• This recipe originally called for normal sized muffins but I use my silicone mini-muffin cups, they cut the cook time in half and to be honest a full sized muffin is too much for me.
• I added nuts to my recipe because I like the random crunch, if you have a nut allergy you can omit them.
• I only have 24 cups and this recipe is enough for almost 48 cups, so I have to bake them in two batches. If I could figure out a way to easily divide an egg, I’d half this recipe. Maybe egg-beaters?
• if you only have regular sized muffin cups/tin then increase the bake time to 20 minutes.

1. Melt butter and start to preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large bowl mash up your (over)ripened bananas
3. Add the wet ingredients to the bananas: sugar, egg, butter, vanilla and mix thoroughly.
4. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients: flour. Baking powder, baking soda, salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together till combined.
6. Lightly grease and dust the muffin cups. (I use butter and my finger to grease the cups and throw them all in a paper bag with a teaspoon of flour and just shake.)
7. Arrange cups on a cookie sheet(make sure to give them some space otherwise the middle cups with not fully cook) and fill them to 3/4 full.
8. Pop into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. I like mine to have a crispy outside so I tend to cook them a little longer.
9. Once they are done pop them out onto a plate or something to cool then bag them up for future enjoyment.