Bananas for Muffins

I love muffins, but I am not a huge fan of bananas. These are the only banana muffins I have ever made that I really love, and since I always have a few extra bananas that are starting to go brown, this is the perfect excuse to use them up.   My son had a joy school party he was supposed to bring a snack to so I figured this was a good opportunity for him to show off his cooking skills by making something for his whole class. These muffins were so good, relatively easy and I loved the taste!

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HOW TO GET THE KIDS INVOLVED

My 2-year-old got a little distracted during this recipe so I gave her a washcloth and let her “clean up” which she took an active interest in.

My son loves peeling, chopping and smooshing bananas, and he got to use the microwave for the first time which he thought was pretty cool.  (Caution: Let them measure, unwrap the butter and put it in the microwave but don’t let them take it out, way too hot.)  He also loved putting all the liners in the muffin tins and scooping the batter into each liner.

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EDUCATE WHILE YOU BAKE

There are so many opportunities to practice measuring skills in cooking and particularly in this recipe.  Showing my son the different sizes of measuring cups and having him try and remember which is which while cooking has been awesome.  It’s also another great counting opportunity, your kids can count out the liners as they stick them in each of the muffin molds and tell you how many muffins they are making total.

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These muffins turned out SO good!  They were really moist and yummy and we were asked for the recipe from multiple joy school moms which made Jack pretty proud of himself. 🙂  Try out another awesome banana bread recipe from the toddler test kitchen or check out these other easy muffin ideas.

Are there other ideas you have for using up browning bananas?

 

Perfect Banana Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 large bananas mashed
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/3 cup butter melted

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

  2. Coat muffin tins with non-stick spray or liners

  3. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt

  4. Combine bananas, white sugar, egg, vanilla and melted butter

  5. Combine all ingredients and fold together until barely mixed.  Do not over mix. Scoop about 1/4 cup mix per muffin cup

  6. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.  Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped

ADULT TASKS: I helped with some of the harder ingredients, like the baking powder, soda and vanilla. I had to help spoon the batter into the muffin cups because it was sticking to the ice-cream scoop and the kids were having a hard time getting it out. I pulled it in and out of the oven

KID TASKS: Cut and smash bananas, add egg (I let them do it by themselves, they did great), take off butter wrapper and put 1/3 cup in microwave, add all liquid ingredients, add all dry ingredients, mix together, put muffin cups in the muffin tin, scoop batter into the muffin cups

Recipe Notes

Recipe taken from "My Mommy Style"; Perfect Banana Muffins