Everyone who knows the difference between a tsp and a tbsp has a special recipe that they know by heart and whip up regularly. I committed this recipe to memory so long ago that I don’t even know where it came from. (Most likely it was adapted from my mom Karin’s banana loaf recipe, but she probably wouldn’t want me sullying her good name with my mediocre muffins.)
The World’s Okayest Banana Muffins are my go-to lazy weekend stay-at-home sweet-tooth brunch treat. They’re quick, easy, hard to screw up, and go great with black coffee. Plus they’re the perfect vehicles for those bananas in your fridge going brown and splotchy. You might not win any awards or impress your older sister who taught you the difference between a tsp and a tbsp, but like a $9 bottle of red wine these banana muffins are just good enough to get the job done.
World’s Okayest Banana Muffins (makes 12)
Ingredients:
- 3 medium super ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup softened butter, plus extra butter for greasing the pan
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt, if ya fancy
You can substitute one of the bananas for a half cup of blueberries if you have blueberries lying around that you need to use up, like I did that one time. You can probably substitute any berries. You can add some cinnamon and top the muffins with a sprinkling of oatmeal. You can do whatever you want. I’m not your boss.
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Chop up 3 bananas to whatever size chunks you prefer and throw them in a mixing bowl. (I like to dice them, but that’s only because I like to use the verb “dice”.)
Add an egg and 1/3 cup of softened butter. Impatient garbage human that I am, I won’t wait for butter to get “room temperature”. I melt the butter in the microwave for about 20 seconds until it gets just a little bit liqueous.
Add 2/3 cup of sugar. If the bananas aren’t super ripe, you might want to add a little more than 2/3 cup. If you’ve substituted some blueberries, you might want to add a little less. If you’re a dentist, you might frown upon me eating a spoonful of sugar every time I bake.
Mash everything together until you get a slightly lumpy consistency.
In a separate bowl, mix together 1 1/4 cups of flour with 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp baking powder. (Or just dump it all in the same bowl and hope for the best. Does anyone actually use a separate bowl when a recipe calls for a separate bowl? Yes? And you’re judging me for mixing everything in the same bowl? Okay, I can live with that.)
Mash, stir, and mix. Leave a few banana lumps if you like it like that, or completely smooth your dough into a glorious gelatinous goo.
Liberally grease a muffin pan with butter. LIBERALLY. Even the staunchest conservative needs to get liberal when it comes to butter. Drop equal portions of dough into the cups of your LIBERALLY greased muffin pan. Think of how delicious the crusts of these muffins will taste when that liberally greased butter bakes into them. Drool.
Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Rotate the pan halfway through baking if your crappy old oven is unevenly heated. Bake until muffins are golden brown around the edges. (I say “golden brown” but what I mean is “bread crust brown”.)
Bonus tip: if you live with someone, the best way to wash out your muffin pan is to leave it unwashed on the stove top until your roommate gets so annoyed that they wash it out for you. Works for me every time!
Handcrapted 