Moist and fluffy banana muffins topped with a crunchy oat streusel topping and drizzled with melted dark chocolate.  

I'm sure we all face the same dilemma- what to do with overripe bananas sitting on the countertop waiting patiently to be eaten (sorry bananas) and transformed to something sweet and tasty. 

Then comes the next dilemma- what to make with them. The opportunities are endless. A loaf cake, layer cake, cupcakes, crumbles, or muffins. For some reason, banana is always with muffin. Maybe because it gives such a hearty, filling breakfast that everyone loves. And what's more, the crunchy streusel topping. 

The streusel topping here is made with melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and oats. No rubbing butter into dry ingredients here! The melted butter gives oats a crunchy texture like cornflakes and makes a sweet and satisfying crunch. Brown sugar and cinnamon are classic with bananas- repeating them in the streusel and muffins highlights that rich, sweet flavours. 

The muffins here are the usual suspects- flour, leavening agents, sugar, salt, cinnamon, eggs, and melted butter. Some muffin recipes call for oil, which gives the muffins extra moistness, but melted butter provides a great flavour AND at the same time makes the muffins moist. Go ahead and take the extra mile to brown the butter in a pan to give these muffins an extra depth, but I just popped mine into the microwave just to melted the butter. 

Once all the dry ingredients have been sifted together and the wet ingredients well mix, fold the wet into the dry. Nothing new here. DO NOT overmix. Over mixing will produce tough, dense muffins. Just mix until all the wet ingredients are incorporated and no flour streaks remain in the batter. 

Fill your muffin tins. I use giant, tall, bakery style muffin cups and filled them almost to the brim. This gives the super tall and mega muffins, just the way I like it. Go ahead and use the smaller ones. 

These muffins are banana-y, moist, fluffy, crunchy, and the smell of them baking in the oven cannot be replaced by anything else. Trust me, these are awesome. 

The Ultimate Banana Muffins 

 

Adapted from Best Ever Banana Muffins by http://hiddenponies.com/2013/03/best-ever-banana-muffins/

INGREDIENTS 

1 egg

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

½ cup butter or margarine, melted

1½ cups all purpose flour

½ cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Topping: 

2 Tbsp melted butter

¼ cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

⅓ cup quick cooking oats

DIRECTIONS 

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or spray with baking spray. Set aside.

2. Whisk egg, mashed banana and melted butter in a large bowl until thoroughly blended.

3. In separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.   Add to banana mixture and stir just until moistened.

4. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin pan (makes 10-12 muffins, depending how big your bananas were. Fill muffin cups almost to the brim and see how far the batter goes). Combine all topping ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over muffins.

5. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until tops are browned and toothpick comes out clean.