Whole Wheat Banana Bread Muffins

Today was sugar overload.

First, there were cookies. A new co-worker had her first day today and her boss enticed people to come introduce themselves by putting a plate of cookies on her desk. It worked.

Then, there were Smarties and Caramel Cremes. I was helping another co-worker with an issue when I saw she put my favorite candy in the candy dish on her desk.

Now, I’ve made banana bread muffins. It’s a perfectly acceptable way to cap a sugar overloaded day. I’ll eat better tomorrow.

At least these banana bread muffins are on the healthier side of things. Besides, I had some seriously black bananas that probably couldn’t wait.

Honestly, I don’t know how these even turned out. I’m not a stellar baker so changing up a baked goods recipe is like playing with fire. But yet, I felt up to the challenge.

I was almost out of all-purpose flour so I made them with whole wheat pastry flour and what little all-purpose flour I had. I was supposed to have low fat yogurt but all I could find in small containers was nonfat.

Oh, and it’s supposed to be loaf – not muffins.

But I didn’t have enough banana to make a whole loaf and making half a loaf is sort of impossible — especially when only you own a standard-sized loaf pan. So muffins it is.

If it worked for my beloved zucchini bread, it can work for this, gosh darn it. At least that’s what I was hoping for when I put them in the oven.

And….



Ta-da!

It worked.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread Muffins
Serves 14.

2 cups whole wheat pastry
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 14 muffin cups (I did half this recipe so I only needed the one pan).

Scoop the flour into a measuring cup and level with a knife. Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and the butter on medium speed with a mixer until well-incorporated. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each egg. Add the bananas, yogurt and vanilla extract. Beat together.

On low speed, add the flour on low speed. Beat just until blended.

Divide mixture between the muffin cups. I use a standard sized ice cream scoop for this. Bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick in inserted in the center comes out clean.