Sunday Morning Muffins

What’s better than waking up on a Sunday morning having a glass of orange juice and a hot muffin right out of the oven? In my mind not much, especially when you have friends to share them with and help make them. That is exactly what I did this morning. It is one of those perfect mornings in San Francisco where the sun is shining on the hill behind my house and the sound of happy children fill the air from a neighboring yard. When you top that with the smell of banana crunch muffins all your worries for the week to come are put behind and you can focus on true Sunday morning relaxation. The recipe that I used for the banana crunch muffins is an Ina Garten, but I made a few adjustments to the recipe. The recipe that follows is the one with my adjustments made to it for the original recipe you can go to www.foodnetwork.com.

Banana Crunch Muffins

3 cups of flour

2 cups of sugar

2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

½ teaspoon of salt

½ pound unsalted butter (2 sticks) melted and cooled *

2 extra large eggs

¾ cup of lactaid milk but you may use regular

2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of almond extract

1 cup mashed bananas (2 bananas)

1 cup granola

1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut

½ cup of chocolate chips

* the reason why the butter needs to cool is so when it is mixed with the egg it does not scramble it instead it just mixes with the egg.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

First Mike sifted the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. While he siftted I melted the butter in a pan and then let it cool before mixing it into the dry sifted ingredients.

In a separate bowl we mixed together the eggs, milk, vanilla, almond, and mashed bananas. Once those ingredients were combined we mixed them into the flour-and-butter mixture.

Once both of those were well combined but not over mixed I folded in the granola, coconut, and chocolate chips. I then carefully spooned the batter into the muffin tin that was lined with paper. I only had one pan to I put the extra batter into a loaf pan, which worked out perfectly.

The muffins baked for 25 to 30 minutes until the tops were brown and a toothpick came out clean. The loaf stayed in for about 5 minutes more.

The muffins came out really well and not too sweet, which I like. An additional thing that you might serve with the muffins is a butter marmalade. All one would do for this is whip together some unsalted butter and whatever flavor marmalade you enjoy (I would use apricot). Once the butter and marmalade or jam are combined put it in a little dish and serve alongside these delish' muffins.

I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as we did. Happy Sunday!