The recipe for these muffins was born when I noticed a bunch of over-ripe bananas sitting on the counter that no one was interested in snacking on.  When this happens, you can either freeze the bananas for smoothies or Use them for baking as they have incredible flavor, but the texture is less than ideal for raw consumption.  I decided to make muffins today and relied on the Cook’s Illustrated method of microwaving the bananas to extract some liquid and then boiling it down.  This takes a bit of extra effort, but it truly intensifies the banana flavor of the muffins.  I like to make jumbo muffins, so I overfill the muffin tins to make about 10 muffins rather than 12.  They freeze well, if they last that long!

Yield 10 large muffins

Ingredients:

for muffins:

  • 13⁄4 cups flour
  • 3⁄4 cup light brown sugar
  • 6 over-ripe bananas
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
  • 1 teaspoon zest of lime, plus more for garnish

for streusel:

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 4 tablespoons of very soft butter
  • 4 tablespoons of golden brown sugar

for lime glaze:

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice

Directions:

Make streusel first by combining all ingredients for streusel in a bowl.  Using your fingers, begin to crumble ingredients between your fingers until streusel comes together into large clumps, a little large than the size of a pea.  Place bowl in freezer while you prepare the muffin batter.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line muffin tin with parchment muffin liners, and lightly spray the top part of exposed muffin tin with cooking spray.

Place 5 bananas in a large, microwaveable bowl or 6 cup measuring cup, cover with plastic and pierce Saran Wrap with a knife several times to create vent holes. Place covered bananas in microwave for 5 minutes. Remove and strain bananas with sieve collecting all juices (you will have about 1⁄2-3⁄4 of a cup). Allow bananas to strain for about 10 minutes.

Heat collected banana juice in a small saucepan until reduced to 1⁄4 cup. Add butter to melt, whisk in eggs, vanilla and mashed bananas and stir to combine.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, lime zest and shredded coconut.   Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well to incorporate. Distribute muffin batter evenly amongst the lined tin (batter will be filled to the top for larger muffins).  Slice remaining banana thinly.   Remove prepared streusel from the freezer and distribute the crumbs evenly among the muffin tops, lightly pressing the streusel in the batter as best you can and then topping with thin slices of banana.  Bake muffins in oven for about 20-22 minutes.  Insert toothpick just until clean.   Use a knife to separate muffins as they will have most likely run into one another. Carefully remove individual muffins to a cooling rack.

While muffins are cooling, combine all ingredients for glaze in a bowl.   Using a spoon dollop a tablespoon of glaze over the top of the muffin and allow it to drizzle down the sides.  Allow glaze to set for a few minutes and garnish with a bit of extra coconut and lime zest as desired.  Enjoy!!!