Browned Butter Banana Nut Muffins

Browned Butter. You are my hero. You are the apple of my eye, the sunshine in my sky, the secret to my magic!

Yes, magic, I create magic. Magic in the kitchen. Seriously. You know when you walk into a café or a bakery and see a gorgeous display of pastries and you think, “Wow, whoever makes these is a genius, literally a holy person?” Well, that person is now officially me.


Every week I look forward to waking up at 6 am (on Friday and Saturday mornings, mind you) to spend my day amongst my good friends Butter, Flour, and Sugar to create pastries and desserts just for you! The smile on your face when you ask for a nibble of that cookie or a taste of that little donut hole, glazed and sprinkled, just makes my day! Really, you should see yourself—when you take that first bite your eyes light up like you were a kid again! It’s great. Really, really great.


Anyway, back to browned butter. And muffins. And Sunday morning breakfast. And sunshine, on November 1st!


I made these muffins a few months ago with fresh summer blueberries and boy oh boy were they addicting! I ate 3 in just one day! Muffin overdose (but totally worth it, mmm).

This morning I needed to make muffins. It was just one of those days—a muffin day. Since fresh blueberries were not around today, I decided to use chopped bananas and toasted walnuts instead.

So now after making both a blueberry and banana nut version, tons of add-in ideas are flying around inside my head, etching to get out:

• Lemon rosemary muffins (inspired by a lemon rosemary pound cake; any herb/flavor of choice will do…lavender, lemon verbena, fresh ginger, basil?)

• Fresh and dried cranberry combo (Dried cherries sound yummers, too! Maybe some slivered almonds and white chocolate chips?)

• Persimmon pulp muffins

• Roasty butternut squash muffins

• Chunks of avocado…and…raspberry? (I don’t even know if this would really work but it sounds so good in my head…)

Ok Stephanie, enough. Focus. Browned Butter. Bananas. Toasted Walnuts. Fresh vanilla beans. Crumb topping. Enough said. Go make these muffins.



Browned Butter Banana Nut Muffins (Infinitely adaptable)

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
7 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup milk (I used 2 % this time)

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used the seeds of half a vanilla bean…I love those bean flecks!)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups chopped bananas (I used 3 large bananas)

about a cup of toasted walnuts


For the Topping:
3 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into little cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Grease a muffin tin or line it with paper or foil liners.

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on the butter. Melt and cook down the butter until little brown bits appear in the pan. Once the butter stops crackling or “singing,” it will begin to brown fairly quickly. Keep a close eye. Remove from heat.

3. Toast the walnuts.

4. Whisk milk, egg, yolk, and vanilla bean seeds until combined. Slowly add the brown butter and stir to combine (careful not to cook the eggs).

5. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add milk and butter mixture all at one and stir gently to combine.

6. Gently but thoroughly fold in the bananas and walnuts and the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly. (You can use an ice cream scoop to plop the batter in the muffin cups!)

7. To make the topping: combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the cups.

8. Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes.


Oh yah, and here is a picture of browned butter. It is a really ugly picture but trust me, this stuff is GOLDEN! Those little brown bits are where all the flavor is at!