Maple Walnut Banana Muffins with a Coffee Glaze

Up until a couple of weeks ago, bananas had been my daughter’s favorite fruit. She would have one first thing every morning and several times a day on most days.  Then unexpectedly, she stopped asking for them all the time and I suddenly had a bunch of very ripe bananas.  I had several ideas rolling around in my noggin and I was trying to figure out what to bake when a friend of mine made a suggestion that inspired this particular recipe.  Since I didn’t want to wait the hour that it takes to bake banana bread, I decided to make muffins.  The maple and banana flavors meld together quite nicely like banana pancakes with the syrup baked right in. The walnuts add a nice textural contrast and the coffee flavored glaze just tops it all off. These muffins barely lasted 24 hrs our house.

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3 bananas very ripe bananas, mashed*

2/3 cup real maple syrup

1/3 cup plain olive oil (do not use extra virgin)

2 tbsp rice milk

1tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

·      Preheat the oven to 350° F.

·      Place cupcake liners in a muffin pan and very lightly spray with dairy free cooking spray (I use Pam Olive Oil spray).

·      In a medium bowl, combine and whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

·      Combine the next 5 ingredients (bananas-eggs) in a mixing bowl. Mix until combined.

·      Add the dry ingredients and mix until the dry ingredients are no longer visible.

·      Gently stir in the walnuts.

·      Fill each 3/4 full (I usually fill them a little more than that).

·      Bake 15-20 or until golden brown on top.

·      Cool 5-10 min on a wire rack. Remove from pan. While still warm, drizzle with glaze and cool completely on a wire rack. (If you can wait that long. I never can.).

*If you don’t have very ripe bananas or not all of them are very ripe, squeeze and squish them while they are still in the peel. It makes them much more easy to mash.

1 cup 10X powdered sugar sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp coffee extract

2-3 tbsp rice milk

·      Mix until smooth and drizzly.

·      Drizzle over slightly warm muffins.

·      Enjoy!

NOTE: If you want to make this as banana bread:

·      Pour batter into a greased 8x4x2 in loaf pan (or what ever loaf pan you have, just watch the baking time).

·      Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

·      Cook on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. While still warm, drizzle with glaze and cool completely on a wire rack.