One-Bowl Banana Muffins

I wasn't planning to write about these banana muffins. They were just something me and the kiddos were whipping up on a Saturday morning. Pretty much every food blogger and their Great Aunt Estelle has published a banana muffin recipe, so why would I? Two reasons: (1) they were unusually delicious (2) I worked out a way to make them in a single bowl, which cuts down the mess and makes it easier with munchkins. The trick to using a single bowl is trivial. I get all the wet ingredients and the salt thoroughly mixed. Then the flour and leavening are combined in a sieve and sifted directly into the wet.

By the time you fold them together, the leavening is distributed just fine. That might not be good enough for a layer cake you are hoping to medal with at the state fair, but in these muffins, you'll never know the difference. Here's a good tip for baking with very young kids: get out all the ingredients and tools you need first before you have them join you. That way you won't be rooting around in the cabinets while they threaten to dump softened butter on the cat. If we have bananas that have gotten too ripe to eat out of hand, I always freeze them for banana muffins or banana bread.

If you are using frozen, just defrost them in the microwave first. Otherwise, if you are using fresh, you'll see that I still microwave them a bit along with the butter, to make them mash more evenly. We used lots of vanilla and a good amount of salt to bring out the banana flavor. If you want to add chopped and roasted nuts or chocolate chips, you certainly have my blessing! Just fold them in at the end.