Banana Muffins, SL1980

Since I had several overripe bananas (something that happens quite often at our house, perhaps I see it as an excuse to make muffins), I decided to seek out a muffin recipe from the Southern Living annuals. At the request of my husband, my sister-in-law gifted us two six cup Giant Muffin pans from Chicago Metallic. So muffin recipe in hand plus giant muffin pan equals fingers crossed for giant delicious muffins.

I have made a lot of banana muffins, and most come out overly dense, dry, and heavy. I have tried recipe after recipe seeking a light, cake-like banana muffin. I think this one is a keeper. The tops were slightly carmelized in texture and the interiors were light and fluffy. They did not last long.

Banana Muffins

Adapted from Southern Living 1980 Annual Recipes, pg 88
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

This recipe was so simple. I creamed the butter and sugars, then added the eggs and bananas and tossed in the flour and baking soda until it was just incorporated. I made six giant muffins with this recipe.

Things I would change: I like to stick as closely as possible to the original recipe the first time I try it, but will admit to changing a few ingredients when I made this batch as we do not have margarine and I ran out of plain sugar. Next time I make these, I would consider adding spices such as nutmeg or cinnamon as well as nuts such as pecans or walnuts to give it added flavor, but as the name suggests, these are great plain banana muffins.