Tasty Tuesday: Banana Coconut Muffins

I hate wasting. This applies to everything, but especially food. One big reason I love making soups... its a great way to use up veggies of all kinds and make something delicious. Last week we ended up with one poor, old, mushy banana that no one wanted to eat. Especially with all the beautiful perfectly ripe ones sitting nearby. So I decided that some baking was in store! Overly ripe bananas are perfect for baking into breads, cakes, or... mini muffins!

I'd also been wanting to make something with coconut for a while. I love coconut anyway, but baked it is even better.

Some googling led me to a simple recipe, which I tweaked and played with just a little to make it even better. The original called for all butter, but I did half butter half coconut oil (to up the coconut flavor even more). It also called for regular sugar, but I subbed honey and coconut sugar (better on the glycemic index, plus I just love honey).

I also decided to make these little devils as mini muffins instead of regular muffins. Easier to pop, and quicker to bake... which was perfect since I wanted one NOW.  :-)  These muffins turned out delicious, fast, and easy. Two bowls, all hand mixed, and completely done in about 25 minutes from decision to make until I was pulling them out of the oven.

Adapted from a Recipe on Food.com

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  (or slightly more when you accidentally overflow your 1/2 tsp measure!)
• 3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Spray mini muffin tin* with non-stick spray.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

3. Whisk together bananas, butter, coconut oil, sugar, honey, egg, vanilla, and 1/2 cup coconut in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened.

4. Divide batter among mini muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup coconut.

5. Bake until muffins are puffed and golden, about 10 minutes.

6. Transfer muffins to a rack and cool slightly.

Enjoy! These are so yummy and made my house smell amazing.
If you make them, let me know what you think! 



* Note: these can also be made as regular muffins, in which case you would want to increase the baking time to about 25 minutes. This makes 24 mini muffins, or I believe 8 full sized ones.