Banana Nut Muffins.....

  These are by far the biggest muffins I have ever made.  I am not sure why they rose so much?!?  I also had a lot of fun with this recipe as I was making it up as I went along.  I started with my recipe for banana bread.....as I had 5 much too ripe bananas sitting on my counter and was not in the mood to just peel and freeze.....perhaps because I already have a bag a frozen bananas in my freezer.....I didn't want to crowd them out!
  I also looked at a recipe for big beautiful muffins that was given to me by a friend of the Reed family from America's Test Kitchen....anything I have made from there has always turned out.....but I was looking for more of a risk.....so I peeked at the recipes but did not follow either of them!

As I was experimenting I was looking at the ratios in each recipe, which one calls for more of this....and none of that........do I beat the eggs first or just add them to the batter?  baking soda or baking powder as a leavening agent.....too much moisture, too little moisture....I felt like I literally was playing a game of 20 questions with myself the whole time.....but I think it worked!

Banana Nut Muffins
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 scoops of vanilla protein powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt
5 over ripe bananas (small)
2 snack packs of apple sauce
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup walnuts

First take all the dry ingredients and mix together in a big bowl.....with all these spices it will smell so darn good.  I chose the spices after literally opening too many jars in the spice cupboard and sniffing away, trying to figure out what might work well together!  Then in a smaller bowl thoroughly mix together the wet ingredients and the sugar.  Then make a well in the dry ingredients and slowly mix in the wet ingredients.  This does take a bit of elbow grease, I would not use an electric mixer.....also keep mixing before adding more milk....when I was mixing it I thought for sure it would be way too dry....this is not the case, just keep mixing.  Just when you think you are finished mixing, add the walnuts and stir until they are evenly distributed!

I let the batter sit in the fridge overnight.  I am beginning to do this more and more, not sure if it makes a difference, it was just how my schedule worked out that day.

I baked these for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  I first sprayed the pan with Pam (no sticking whatsoever)....the muffins actually kind of popped out of the pan.  They are packed with moisture and have a fine crust on the muffin top....of course the best part.....before placing them in the oven I smashed up some walnuts mixed with sugar and sprinkled on top of the batter....adding sugar to the muffins before baking always adds a nice crust on the top of the muffin!  Adding nuts was another new experiment!

Thinking about further experimentation by using apples and not bananas.....until next time!