Banana Muffins

I made some banana muffins! If you know Patrick then you might be surprised to hear we made banana muffins. He has some weird aversion to "fruit" desserts including but not limited to banana muffins, key lime pie, and lemon pound cake. He does like apple pie though. Patrick also doesn't like overly ripe bananas. 

Patrick note: I'm very consistent. I don't like citrus desserts, and I don't like fruit or vegetable breads! These muffins were pretty good though as far as fruit breads go.

So we had some overly ripe bananas I didn't want to waste, a mother visiting the next day, and wanted something fun to do after dinner that night. All this and more lead us to make banana muffins!!

Mom was coming to town for her annual nursing conference which started on a Thursday. She came up a day early as we were taking our engagement pictures Wednesday afternoon!! When Mom arrived in the morning, we each had a muffin then went to the mall so I could get my hair and makeup done for the pictures. Patrick and I enjoyed working with Carol from Conway Photoshop and had such a fun afternoon. Mom also turned out to be a wonderful lighting assistant.

Now back to the banana muffins!!! I found this banana muffin recipe from Food Network by my fav, Giada, and I knew it had to be good! I've posted the recipe below; we altered the frosting a little bit and noted that below.


Banana Muffins with Mascarpone Cream Frosting from Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis
Ingredients
Muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed
Frosting:
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese, room temperature
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Directions
   Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
   Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl to blend. Beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the banana. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
   Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out with no crumbs attached, about 25 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool slightly. The muffins may be eaten warm or cooled completely and frosted.
   To frost the cupcakes: Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the mascarpone cheese and then beat in the honey. Spread the frosting over the muffins. Sprinkle with the walnuts.
   We wanted to make a healthier frosting and omitted the butter and mascarpone. I used the cinnamon and honey cream cheese spread from Harris Teeter. Then I grabbed the microplane zester and grated a baking chocolate square over all the muffins!


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