Banana Muffins with a Crumb Topping

Sometimes, Ryan has to be at work at 7am.  When that happens, I wake up at 6am with him and make us both lunches for the day. When he leaves for work, I usually do one of three things:

1.  Go back to sleep for an hour

2. Clean the house

3. Go to the gym

Last week, I changed it up a little and decided that I’d bake a batch of banana muffins before the sun came up.  I put up my favorite Clipse album , pulled out all of my of baking ingredients, and in 30 minutes time, I had a nice warm batch of banana muffins to take to work.

I’ve made quite a few baked goods for my co-workers over the years but these muffins were perhaps one of the most loved.  Never before have I received so many thank-you emails.  The tray was empty in less than twenty minutes!  They were really, really good, and really, really easy.  Next time I have a few over-ripe bananas sitting around, these will be the first thing I make.

Banana Muffins with a Crumb Topping

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted

For the crumb topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tablespoon cold butter

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 375F and line 12 muffin tins with baking papers (cupcake wrappers).

Mix the first four dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together the bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until they are just mixed.

For the topping–mix together all ingredients except butter.  Cut the cold butter into small cubes and then mix it in to the dry ingredients.  It’s easiest to do this with clean hands.  It should resemble coarse sand when you are done.

Fill the lined muffin tins about 1/2 to 2/3 full.  Top each one with a sprinkling of the crumb topping.  Bake at 375F for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Try not to over-bake!

Makes a dozen muffins.