Banana, Buttermilk and Brown Sugar Muffins (Triple B Muffins) – Recipe
Banana, Buttermilk and Brown Sugar Muffins
Bumble downstairs on a Saturday morning. Brew strong coffee. Look in fridge. See buttermilk left over from making Brown Butter Cornbread. Sounds like muffins to me.
Usually when I bake with bananas I either mash them or cube them and caramelize for extra flavor, but today I went a different route. If we have bananas that are in danger of getting too brown to eat out of hand, I’ll peel and freeze them for use in smoothies or baking. I recently got a [amazon_link id=”B000LQETHI” target=”_blank” ]Vita-Mix Vita-Prep 3[/amazon_link] as a gift, and it really is just about the greatest thing I’ve ever owned. The damn thing can puree hard-frozen bananas like they were made of room temperature butter. So I thought I’d see how it would turn out if I mixed all the wet ingredients right in the blender. Bueno! The results were tender, with a moist, open crumb. If you don’t have a jet-powered blender, you can do the same thing but simply use unfrozen bananas or defrost them in the microwave first.
I also tossed in a bit of fresh ginger for some extra complexity. You can certainly omit that or use 1/4 teaspoon of dried ginger if you prefer a more standard baking flavor.
Banana, Buttermilk and Brown Sugar Muffins
Vegetarian and kosher
Yields 12 muffins
35 minutes total (10 active)
Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup safflower (or other neutral vegetable) oil
- 1 egg
- 2 very ripe bananas (overripe if possible, frozen is fine – defrost in microwave first if your blender isn’t superpowered)
- 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Dry ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup brown sugar (preferably dark brown)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Drizzle ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (preferably dark)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees (using convection if available) and put liners in a 12-cup muffin pan.
- Put the wet ingredients in a blender and blend on high until very smooth.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients and stir and fold them together. Stir as little as possible to avoid developing gluten which would make the muffins tough. Divide the batter into the muffin cups (an ice-cream scoop works well for this.)
- Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of the drizzle over each muffin.
- Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes.
These look beautiful, Michael! I keep overripe bananas in the freezer for just this purpose – can’t wait to try this recipe. Now if I can just procure a Vitamix… 🙂
Thanks for the great recipe instructions – will definetley give this recipe ago, muffines with any fruit in are tasty but especially with bananas!! 🙂
Wow, those muffins are beautiful! I wish I had one right now. What a great way to use up that extra buttermilk. It sounds like a keeper!
I can’t wait to try them this Saturday morning.
I made these tonight and they are delicious! I didn’t have any dark brown sugar, only light, and no ginger, but still delicious!!!
That’s awesome! I love when folks make a recipe the very same day I post it.
These muffins sound absolutely perfect! I always have bananas – fresh or frozen. This is a great recipe for me to try 🙂 Cheers, Michael!
I made these this morning and they are the best banana-based muffins I’ve had. You know how banana bread is pretty good, but the whole time you’re eating it, it just shouts BANANA! In your mouth? What sets this recipe apart is the complement of favors from – duh, let’s start with less banana…then there’s the brightness of the fresh ginger, the depth from brown sugar instead of white, the buttermilk which adds its own sweetness. What really sent these over the top was just that little bit of caramel drizzle after baking. I’ve had two already. Bliss!
Terrific idea to caramelize the bananas before you use them. I’ll remember that tip!
Oh, I LIVE for muffins! This looks great. My girls eat anything with banana and I’m always looking for new ideas. Good food makes me happy, and I’m all about the happy. Look for twinkles, follow the winks, find your happy. 😉
I am super excited for these to finish baking! I just wanted to let people know that this made more like 18 muffins for me instead of 12. Smells delicious!
Awesome muffins… it took me two weeks because the bananas kept disapparing so I had to result to hiding 2 in a cupboard. So so very good. All gone in 24 hours
These muffins are delicious – kids very happy! I got 20 muffins out of the recipe, using standard-sized muffin tins, so plan to get more than 12, and make extra topping. Yum!
Hi Michael,
Can i leave out the egg in this recipe or isthere a substitute you’d recommend?
Thanks!
Vidya
Hi Vidya – I’m sure it is possible, but without having tried I wouldn’t want to guess at a substitution for you.
I doubled the recipe, realized I did not have enough flour and had to sub 2 cups of the all-purpose flour with 1 cup of sweet rice flour and 1 cup of almond flour. Gorgeous little things are in the oven now and I’m crossing my fingers because I’m bringing them to work for people!! ; ~ )
All I can say is Awesome!!!!! I add a hand full of frozen blueberries. The topping us amazing. Think I’ll make another batch for all the neighbors! Thanks so much!!
All the years I have been baking, I have never used butter milk before. I made cranberry and lemon scones with buttermilk. They were so light I thought i would look into buttermilk more. Haveade these banana muffins tonight and added walnuts. So light and so soooo delishious. I feel a whole new baking world has been opened up to me.