You Say Banana; I Say Muffin

The good thing about summer? The overwhelming amount of produce. The bad thing about summer? Not being able to use the overwhelming amount of produce before it goes bad.

And that's where baking saves the day.

Normally when baking with fruit, like when you make pies, you need it to be on the firmer side, so the juices don't run and make a huge mess in your oven. But muffins and breads are perfect for fruit that's imperfect. And that's exactly what I had this week, strawberries that were starting to go soft and bananas that were too soft to eat on their own. My son wanted to know what we could do with them. Make muffins, of course!

These muffins were a big hit with the whole family -- even my husband, who doesn't like strawberries. Because they were already soft and baked into the muffin, the broke down even more, adding a natural sweetness to the muffin, which was complimented nicely by the smokiness from the brown sugar.

These muffins are great any time of the day: on-the-go breakfast, mid-morning or afternoon snack, or evening nosh. Take your pick!

Banana-Strawberry Muffins

A Country Cooking Original Recipe
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

Muffins

• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
• 1 cup chopped, fresh strawberries
  Streusel Topping
  
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons cold butter

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottoms only of muffin tin or line with paper baking cups.
2. Make streusel topping and set aside.
3. Beat milk, mashed bananas, oil, and egg in a large bowl with wire whisk. Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt all at once until flour is just moistened (batter will be lumpy).
4. Fold in strawberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, and sprinkle each with about 1 tablespoon of streusel topping.
5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. If baked in greased pan, let stand about 5 minutes in tin, then remove to wire rack to cool. If baked in paper baking cups, immediately remove from pan to wire rack.