Banana Streusel Muffins Recipe

A super-moist banana muffin recipe, sweetened with very ripe bananas and much-reduced sugar, topped with a 'streusel' mix of toasted nuts and cinnamon. A real treat for breakfast or an afternoon snack — maybe deserve a spot on a Mother's Day menu?

Who’s noticed how food companies put sugar in everything nowadays? No wonder nutrition experts say our country has developed a severe sugar addiction!

Before Christmas, I experimented with draconian cuts in the sugar portions in cakes and cookies, muffins and scones.

My friends call these cuts 'Alanna-sizing' a recipe: a fifty- percent reduction in sugar is a reliable start though as you’ll see from BANANA STREUSEL MUFFINS, more can work as well.

Yes, there is a taste difference. But a positive one!

Without overwhelming sweetness, banana muffins taste like banana and pumpkin coffeecake tastes like, well, pumpkin.

So adjust your own favorite recipes and let me know how it goes over in your family. If yours is amazed as mine, we’ll break the addiction, family by family, town by town.

I promise, you won't miss all the sugar in this recipe for Banana Streusel Muffins. They are still surprisingly sweet, my goodness, how over-the-top sweet the original muffins must have been. Still, they are definitely 'muffins' and not 'cupcakes'.

And talk about moist! Even (accidentally) left uncovered on the counter for 24 hours, they were still as moist and delicious as straight out of the oven.

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT TIP For weight management, use discreet individual servings whenever possible. This avoids portion-size “creep”, that is, scooping out or slicing off just a little bit more. Muffin portions work well in baking. For casseroles or side dishes, use a quiche dish or pie pan easily portioned into a certain number of pieces.

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences.

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RECIPE for BANANA STREUSEL MUFFINS

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 45 minutes
Makes 12 regular-size muffins

1/2 cup butter, warmed to room temperature
1/4 cup sugar (reduced from 3/4 cup)
1 large egg
1-1/2 cups mashed banana (from about 4 very ripe bananas or 'black' bananas)
3 tablespoons low-fat buttermilk
1-1/2 cups flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt

1/4 cup brown sugar (reduced from 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans or walnuts
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F.

MUFFINS Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer. Add egg and combine well. Add mashed banana and buttermilk and combine well. Separately, stir together dry ingredients and combine with butter mixture until just combined (see TIPS). Spoon evenly into 12 regular size lightly buttered muffin tins. Use back of spoon to slightly flatten muffin tops.

STREUSEL Mix streusel ingredients and spread evenly over muffins.

Bake for about 25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes, remove from muffin tin.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE (How many calories in Banana Streusel Muffins? How many Weight Watchers points in Banana Streusel Muffins?) Per Muffin: 171 Calories; 11g Tot Fat; 5g Sat Fat; 38mg Cholesterol; 169mg Sodium; 17g Carb; 1g Fiber; 12g Sugar; 2g Protein; Weight Watchers 4 points

This recipe has been 'Alanna-sized' with reductions in sugar.

ALANNA's TIPS Use the leftover butter wrapper to grease the muffin tins.

Over-mixing the batter for a quick bread like muffins will create small tunnels. If you've had trouble with holes in muffins or quick breads before, switch to a wooden spoon to incorporate the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. A little flour on the side of the bowl won't hurt.

LATER NOTES

If you'd like to cut a few more calories, use only half or two-thirds of the streusel ingredients.

This column was originally published in print in 2004 and online for the first time in 2010.

This is such a great little muffin recipe. I love how the banana flavor really comes through, also how the muffins stay so moist!

More Recipes for Very Ripe Bananas

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More Muffin Recipes

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I love banana muffins of all kind. These sound fabulous!

Jessica @ How Sweet on 5/02/2010

Thanks for telling me about the 'black bananas'. I've made your banana muffins 3 times already and love them but I now know they will taste better if I allow my bananas to be black.

What would I do without your recipes and tips???

Joan B on 5/07/2010

These look really moist and yummy! But I'm not a big fan of nuts...
What would the nutritional information be without the streusel topping?

Anonymous on 1/15/2011

This is my new favorite, not only for banana muffins, but I will be using this as a streusel topping on other recipes as well.

Anonymous on 10/07/2011