Banana-Walnut Muffins

 6 July 2021

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, May 2021

I recently made corn muffins that, for several reasons, I preferred to corn bread. Not only did they taste good and have a good texture, but there were advantages in having single-serving sized portions ready to go. So when a recipe for banana-walnut muffins appeared I wondered if the same might be true, would these be a convenient form of banana bread?

The dry ingredients (bread flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) were whisked together in a bowl. Six bananas were mashed then mixed with sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. The flour mixture was added to the wet ingredients and whisked until combined. Chopped toasted walnuts were mixed in. The batter was portioned into twelve oiled muffin cups and the tops were sprinkled with sugar. These were baked at 425° until a toothpick inserted in the middle came out clean. Total time to prepare these muffins was just 50 minutes.

I may have used too much banana, I don't remember if I measured the mashed banana to see if there was 2 cups; since the bananas were not large I used 6 instead of the 4-5 large bananas listed in the recipe. The muffins were good but did not have as strong a banana flavor as my favorite banana bread. The sugar sprinkled on the tops almost overpowered the banana flavor. The muffins were good and very easy to make but they are not a replacement for my favorite banana bread.