I had one overripe banana.
I had one sweet potato.
I thought they might go nicely together.
Guess what.
They do.
I figured I’d make the muffins this morning, so I baked the sweet potato last night and measured everything else out so I’d be ready to go.
Then this morning, I threw everything together quickly.
Good thing, too, because I’m also cooking ribs today. Outside. In the very cold air.
But more on that later.
First, the muffins.
I’ve got butter and brown sugar whirring together in the mixer, flour, baking powder and salt in the other metal bowl (and there should have been cinnamon in there, too, but I didn’t think to add it til later. Ah well. You can pretend. And I’ve got a couple eggs and my mashed banana and sweet potato mixture.
Once the butter and sugar were light and fluffy, I added the eggs, one at a time, and then dumped in the banana/sweet potato blend.
Mmm…pretty.
OH – I forgot – I also added half a cup of shredded coconut. Just for fun. Chopped pecans would be nice in here, too, but I didn’t have any.
Okay, next up, combining the wet and dry ingredients.
Right after I took the above picture I realized I’d wanted to add cinnamon, so I sprinkled about half a teaspoon in and mixed the whole mess together until – everyone – just combined. You don’t want to overbeat muffins or quick breads or they’ll start to toughen up.
I ended up with fifteen muffins – 12 in a pan and the other three in ramekins.
They baked roughly 25 minutes at 400 degrees F , but as I forgot to set the timer when I first put them in, I can’t give you an exact time. And since oven temperatures vary, you’ll want to start checking them at about twenty minutes anyway.
I know. There are only 14 in the picture.
Here’s the other one.
Hungry yet?
Here’s the recipe:
Banana Sweet Potato Muffins
(makes 12-15 muffins)
Ingredients:
1 overripe banana
1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)
1 large sweet potato, baked and cooled
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
What do do:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups, and have a few ramekins and paper cups available for excess batter.
Mash the banana, sweet potato and coconut together and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or by hand, or with a hand-held mixer) cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, and combine well. Mix in the banana/sweet potato mixture.
Scrape the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don’t overmix.
Spoon the batter into muffin cups. I don’t make huge muffins – I’d rather have more smaller ones than fewer big ones, but that’s up to you. If you make them bigger, they’ll take a few minutes longer to bake.
Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to the touch.
Let them cool a bit before removing from the pan.
They really good still warm with a little butter.
I’m thinking they’d also be good with a streusel topping…but then, it’s hard to think of anything that wouldn’t benefit from streusel….
The family food critics all liked them, by the way.
Alex pronounced them “Excellent,” and Bill suggested they’d be good with sparkling sugar baked on top, too.
Julia didn’t try one until just a moment ago. She was too interested earlier in the donuts a friend of ours brought.
And that’s my recipe.
Hope you give it a try, and if you do, please let me know what you think!
