MAPLE ROASTED BANANA NUT MUFFINS

...the bananas that I got on sale because they were just past their prime

...the roasted bananas that members of the blogging community have been tempting me with

...the quart of maple syrup that Ben so graciously sent me (Thanks, Ben!)

...my husband's love for all things "banana nut"....bread, muffins....he's not picky

...a day alone in the house to do whatever I wanted & because I spent it missing my husband's company

Every one of those reasons played into the birth of these muffins yesterday.   Thankfully the local grocery story doesn't sell their bananas quickly enough so I find them very often marked down.  Yay me!  I love a good deal.  I originally bought the bananas to freeze for smoothies; but, because my freezer is full of slow roasted tomatoes and basil pesto and kale and because I couldn't get "roasted bananas" and the maple syrup off my mind, I thought it might be nice to surprise David with his favorite muffins - kicked up.  

So....roasting the bananas was easy.  I just did a quick "Dairy Queen Banana Split cut" on them.  Thank God for those life skills I learned as a teen, right?

I dotted them with butter, drizzled some of that yummy Ben's Grade B maple syrup over them and placed them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  You should have smelled this house while they were cooking.  oh.my.  Amazing....

While the bananas were getting happy in the oven, I toasted some walnuts in a dry skillet.  Bananas and walnuts just go together, I think.

Once the bananas had cooled down, they were ready to be mashed up and used in my favorite banana muffin recipe that I shared with you here.

The recipe calls for mixing the mashed bananas with sugar, egg and butter.  I had some delicious butter and maple syrup left in the bottom of the baking dish and I could not let that go to waste. 

I poured it into a measuring cup and melted about 3 tablespoons more butter in the microwave to make the required 1/3 cup butter called for in the recipe.

So into the bowl with the mashed bananas it goes along with 1 egg, slightly beaten, and 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Because I had used the maple syrup in the recipe this time, I omitted the white sugar completely. 

In a separate bowl, I had mixed together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour and combined it with the wet ingredients until thoroughly mixed.  After adding the toasted nuts, I spooned them into pans lined with cupcake liners and placed into the oven for 20-25 minutes.  The original recipe usually makes 12 muffins.  I didn't fill mine up like I normally do and so I got 18 out of it.  Good thing that I did because.....    oh.my.goodness.

I will never make banana muffins any other way.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have an awesome week.

This post is being linked up here

with the Hearth and Soul Hop,
here with Let's Do Brunch and here
with Seasonal Inspiration at Crumbs and Chaos.