Banana Bread Muffins

My Hermit Crab has come and gone. She was only home for about a day and a half, but she crammed a lot into her short stay.

We had lasagna on Friday night, she went out with her High School BFF all afternoon Saturday to celebrate the BFF's birthday. When she got home, she ran to the local taco shack she used to work at in high school and we feasted on tacos and burritos and the awesome crispy potatoes. After dinner we cleared out the dining room and set up our pumpkin carving stations. HC took almost three hours to carve her pumpkin. The rest of us finished in about 40 minutes.

I knew she was jonesing for some homemade treats so I fixed her up with some banana bread and some Chocolate covered Peanut butter Crispy treats (recipe coming soon). I always struggle with making loaves of banana bread-you know, they get all nice and golden brown but the center sinks and it is a hot, gooey mess inside. I now make them in muffin or small loaf pans and they come out perfect.

It also allows me to customize the loaves and muffins since Drama Queen doesn't really like nuts, so I usually need to make 2 pans of bars, or take some of the cookie dough out before adding nuts so she can have nut-free treats. Seriously, my family is way too spoiled.

I have combined two of my recipes to make this one. I received passing marks from the entire family, so this one will need to go into rotation.

Banana Bread Muffins

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg (about 3 or 4 swipes on rasp)

3 very ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In medium bowl, combine the flour, soda and salt. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. (I did this in my stand mixer because of my wrist issues) Stir in beaten eggs, the spices and the bananas. When combined, stir flour mixture into wet mixture. Only stir until combined so you don't overwork the batter. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake 60-65 minutes. Or, use muffin tins that have been greased and bake about 28 minutes. Test with toothpick or cake tester. Cool in pan and then turn out onto rack to finish cooling. Wrap and store in fridge.

I store my banana bread in fridge because the peeps in this house like it a little more firm, plus I think the flavor is a little better this way.

Hermit Crab took a small loaf back to school to share with her roommate. I hope it made it to school and didn't get eaten in the car on the road trip back, or Debbie will be mad at me-I promised her some fresh banana bread.