Wild Blueberry and Banana Muffins
I do love bananas, if you haven’t figured that out already. Banana bread, banana muffins, banana halwa, banana smoothie, french toast with bananas are just a few of my favorite foods. Growing up, sliced bananas in a bowl of cold milk were my favorite breakfast. It was either the taste I grew up on or some weird coincidence but when I was pregnant with my son, the only food I craved was a banana and a glass of milk. Thankfully it was a craving easy to satisfy, or so I thought. So it wasn’t the usual story of me demanding ice cream, pickles or fried food in the middle of the night. It was instances of me waking up in a hotel room (on vacation in Florida) and demanding a banana and a cold glass of milk from room service at 2am in the morning. I’ve got to admit that was the most expensive banana I’ve ever had!
It’s probably no wonder that banana muffins are Nikhil’s favorite snack.
And so, when my friend, Bharathi, made these scrumptious yet very healthy blueberry banana muffins, I had to try them and share, despite the many banana bread and muffin recipes that you already see here.
Ingredients: (Makes 12 muffins or 24 mini-muffins)
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup frozen wild blueberries (from Costco or other health food store)
1 over ripe banana
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp white distilled vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup almonds (optional)
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the flour, brown sugar, nuts and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
2. In a blender, grind the frozen wild blueberries, banana, vanilla essence, olive oil and vinegar to a smooth paste.
3. Make a well in the bowl with the dry ingredients and add the blueberry-banana mixture.
4. Mix well with a beater. Alternatively, you can mix everything in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
5. Line the muffin pans, and spray with oil if needed. Fill the muffin cups with the batter.
6. Bake in the heated oven for 17-19 minutes.
I added nuts to this which is a modification from the original recipe. Adding the nuts gives the muffins a cracked surface. I tried a batch without nuts and it turned out smooth on the surface. I also added slivered almonds as topping just to give it a different look.
