Bananas are a powerhouse fruit full of potassium
They don’t look pretty sitting on your counter, but overripe bananas are a great addition to many beginner baker’s ingredient list.
Easy to freeze, bananas going brown are always tossed into a Ziploc bag at my house and then retrieved from behind the frozen burgers when one of us has a hankering for banana bread.
And, they aren’t just a lunchbox filler either. According to Canadian Living bananas are on the list of the top 25 healthiest fruits because of their high levels of potassium and blood pressure lowering qualities.
So, the other night when a pack of frozen bananas fell on my head as I was trying to jam my freezer shut, I thought I might as well make a semi-healthy snack out of them.
Here is my adapted version of my great-auntie Bee’s banana muffin recipe (vegan substitutions in italics):
-1 egg (1/4 cup applesauce, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder)Using brown bananas in baking is a great way to reduce your food waste.
Photo by: Laura Lushington
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/4 cup melted butter (1/4 cup melted Earth Balance)
-1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 large bananas)
-1 1/2 cup flour
-3/4 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
Beat sugar gradually into beaten egg (or applesauce and baking powder). Add melted butter (or Earth Balance), bananas – combining well. Sift dry ingredients together and then mix in. Bake in muffin pan for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees.
Nuts can be added if desired.
To make these muffins even healthier by adding more fibre, you could try making them with whole-wheat flour and adding 1/4 cup of wheat germ.
llushington@cjournal.ca