Banana Blueberry Muffins

Muffins are always a huge hit at our house, and we are always happy to try new muffin reipes.  Or variations of recipes, because sometimes one does have to wonder, how many versions of a muffin can there really be?  Regardless, we bake a new batch of muffins roughly every 10 days.  Here is a great recipe to use up those ripe bananas, and add in some of those plentiful blueberries too!

Banana Blueberry Muffins

3 large ripe bananas

¾ cup sugar

1 large egg, slightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups flour 

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375F. 

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Mix well.

Mash bananas in a large mixing bowl.  Add in the sugar , then egg, then the melted butter.  Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture.  Do not over mix. 

Toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon of flour to coat.  Fold into the batter. 

Fill lined muffin cups ¾ full.  Bake for 18-20 minutes.

VERDICT:

These are ever-popular at our house.  Bananas, good.  Blueberries, good.  Muffins, good!!

Blueberry Maple Muffins

You've heard me say this before, but I love muffins.  They are such an easy thing to eat when you've got a baby attached to your hip (and only one hand free!).  I am always searching for new muffin recipes, especially muffins of the blueberry variety.  On my Facebook newsfeed this week was a link via the YummyMummy Club for Blueberry Maple Muffins.  Oh...these sound so interesting!  So much so that I made them as soon as the baby went for his nap (and I had two hands free! LOL).  Here is the recipe:

Muffins:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup fresh blueberries (coated with about a tablespoon of flour)


Topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
 (The original recipe called for slivered almonds, but because DH has an almond allergy, I replaced the almonds with a few chopped pecans)
Preheat oven to 375.

In a large bowl, mix together egg, maple syrup, milk and mleted butter. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Mix the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients, until just moistened (do not overmix).  Fold in the blueberries.  Spoon into lined muffin tops.

Mix together the topping ingredients, sprinkle topping over the muffins.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until done to your preference.  Makes 12-14 muffins.

VERDICT:

These are a HIT.  I love the maple flavour.  Our oldest son is inhaling these muffins.  Hubby likes them too! (he took 2 for lunch today).  I will most certainly be making these again!

Guest Post with Debbie Does Creations

Guest posts are fun! 

Debbie from Debbie Does Creations asked me to write a guest post for her "Recipe of the Week" for this week - she asked me to share my current favourite recipe...please head over to her blog to read all about it. 

Thank you Debbie for the opportunity!

Blueberry Raisin Wheat Bran Muffins - Crazy Cooking Challenge

Hello to everyone from the Crazy Cooking Challenge!  This month our challenge was Blueberry Bran Muffins.  I am new to the Crazy Cooking Challenge, but looking forward to the fun!  This is a re-post from an entry I did in January...but it's a good one.

I love muffins, I really do.  Probably has something to do with the fact that they can be eaten with one hand, and I always have a baby in the other!  I know everyone says that muffins can be bad for you, especially those store bought ones, but I think that if you can find the right recipe, you know what's going into them and therefore what's going into your body.  And if you are satisfied with what you put into the muffins, then that's what matters :-)


I especially like blueberry muffins, and I like the idea of bran muffins, though I find bran muffins too dry.  So I have always been on the search for the perfect blueberry bran muffin recipe.  You'd think it would be easy to find the perfect recipe.  Maybe I am too picky, I'm not sure.  Today I found a new bran muffin recipe which I modified when we made them, and part of the modifications included adding blueberries.  Here is the recipe we used:

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1/4 cup molasses

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups natural wheat bran

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup raisins

Cream shortening and sugar together.  Add molasses and eggs, and beat well.  Add buttermilk, then add bran. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add to liquid ingredients.

Stir in raisins and blueberries.

Place in lined muffin pan, bake at 400 F for 18 to 20 minutes or until muffins are done.

Makes 12 large muffins.

THE VERDICT
These are a nice looking muffin and taste pretty good.  The blueberries make the muffins especially moist. Big plus! Personally I am not a big fan of molasses, so next time we make these I will actually cut the molasses from 1/4 cup to 1/8 cup.  I think it still needs to be there, just a smaller amount. My husband and oldest son both liked these!

Featured!

What a pleasant surprise to visit a fellow foodie's blog and see the Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake featured!  It continues to be a hit in blogland! 

Have you given the recipe a try yet?  We had it again last weekend, but with blackberries this time...and again, it was YUM!

This week it has been featured by Miz Helen's Country Cottage at her Full Plate Thursday!  Thanks Miz Helen!
           

Have you joined me on Facebook yet?  Would love for you to do so!

I've Been Featured, Again!

OH MY GOODNESS!  A third feature on the Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake!  This is amazing!  Thank you Inside BruCrew Life for featuring the breakfast cake as one of her "Fab 5" for this week!  I do hope your kids love it as much as my son does!





Be sure to check out her blog, as well as the other blogs who have featured the cake.  They all do great work!  Here's a picture of of the Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake...just to tempt you again!

I've Been Featured!

What an exciting morning for me!  It looks like the Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake is a popular recipe - with good reason, it is VERY yummy!  I just found out that my breakfast cake was featured on another link party/blog! 

My oldest son was sitting with me when I read the news, and his response was "That's my favourite recipe in the whole world!".  Cool!  Thanks so much to Things that make you say "Mmmmm"!  Please check out Karen's blog here:



Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake

Yes, you read it right...cake for breakfast!  I've mentioned before that we are a house that eats a LOT of pancakes, french toast and waffles, and I am still trying to shake up our mornings by adding a few new breakfast recipes into the mix.  This weekend I decided to go with a Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast cake.  I saw it on Pinterest and it looked good enough to try!  I adapted the recipe from Alexandra's Kitchen.  Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Zest of one large lemon

7/8 cup + 1/2 tablespoon sugar*

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups + 1/8 cup flour**

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups fresh blueberries, washed

1/2 cup buttermilk

*Extra 1/2 tablespoon is for sprinkling on top

**Extra 1/8 cup is for tossing with blueberries

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a large bowl, cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. 

In a separate bowl, mix together 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.

In a small bowl, toss the blueberries with 1/8 cup of flour.  Fold the blueberries into the batter.

Grease a 9 inch square baking pan.  Spread the batter into the pan, batter will be thick.  Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of sugar on top of the batter.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until done.  Allow cake to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.  Serve warm.

VERDICT:

This was a wonderful change to our usual.  Our 4 year old told me that it is his favourite, even more than ribs (and the kid LOVES ribs) - so that is saying a lot!  He ate more than half the pan!  (sure hope he doesn't get a tummy ache later).  DH and I both enjoyed the cake too, especially since it is served warm.  It's a keeper! And I bet raspberries or blackberries would be tasty in this too.  Oh YUM...I can't wait for berry season!

Searching for the Perfect Blueberry Bran Muffin Recipe

I love muffins, I really do.  Probably has something to do with the fact that they can be eaten with one hand, and I always have a baby in the other!  I know everyone says that muffins can be bad for you, especially those store bought ones, but I think that if you can find the right recipe, you know what's going into them and therefore what's going into your body.  And if you are satisfied with what you put into the muffins, then that's what matters :-)

I especially like blueberry muffins, and I like the idea of bran muffins, though I find bran muffins too dry.  So I have always been on the search for the perfect blueberry bran muffin recipe.  You'd think it would be easy to find the perfect recipe.  Maybe I am too picky, I'm not sure.  Today I found a new bran muffin recipe which I modified when we made them, and part of the modifications included adding blueberries.  Here is the recipe we used:

Blueberry Raisin Wheat Bran Muffins

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1/4 cup molasses

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups natural wheat bran

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup raisins

Cream shortening and sugar together.  Add molasses and eggs, and beat well.  Add buttermilk, then add bran. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add to liquid ingredients.

Stir in raisins and blueberries.

Place in lined muffin pan, bake at 400 F for 18 to 20 minutes or until muffins are done.

Makes 12 large muffins.

THE VERDICT
These are a nice looking muffin and taste pretty good.  The blueberries make the muffins especially moist. Big plus! Personally I am not a big fan of molasses, so next time we make these I will actually cut the molasses from 1/4 cup to 1/8 cup.  I think it still needs to be there, just a smaller amount.  My husband hasn't tried one yet, but I'm sure they will pass in his eyes!