peanut butter & chocolate banana bread.

i realize i am not the first one to ever do this but i wanted to make sure that you knew about it. 

i love banana bread. 

i love reese's peanut butter cups.

and 

now i love reese's peanut butter cups in my banana bread. 

 

 i used one my favorite banana bread recipes and added a bag of mini reese's peanut butter cups. they are perfect. 

sooo easy and sooo good.

you're welcome.  

 

banana bread muffins. number two.

if you liked my other banana bread muffins...i promise you will LOVE these, too! i didn't think i would find a recipe for banana bread that i would love as much as the one i posted here. 

i was wrong.

these are great. they are a little sweeter than any other banana bread i have had. that's not a bad thing. 

they are also a little lighter in color. and kind of crunchy on top. fantastic. 

i had buttermilk left over from the muffins i made these weekend and i knew i had a couple recipes in my stash that i wanted to try that called for buttermilk. i also have bananas left over as well. so this was the perfect recipe for me. 

i think matt ate six of them when he got home from work. and there were even pretzel m&m's in the house, if that tells you anything. he swears these are his favorite muffins now. we'll see. 

p.s. the woman, aunt marilyn, who is credited for this recipe is amazing. i don't know her but i love her. 

every.recipe.i.have.made.of.hers.is.awesome. 

banana bread + printable version 

-- recipe from mel's kitchen cafe

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup mashed bananas

4 tablespoons buttermilk
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
dash baking soda

in a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add eggs, bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla. in another bowl, mix dry ingredients. add dry ingredients to banana mixture. mix well. divide batter into greased floured bread pan or prepared muffins tins. bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes for loaf or 20-25 minutes for muffins.   

**i made these without using liners and they were kind of a pain to get out even though i sprayed the pan...next time i will just use liners.

banana bread muffins.

so i thought i should mix it up a bit. something other than cookie club and over the top sweets. as a result, i'm posting my favorite banana bread muffin recipe. i love banana bread. who doesn't? but i usually have a hard time cooking it long enough so that the middle is done without the outside being burnt. is it just me? in effort to solve this problem, i decided to make muffins. holy cow. these muffins are divine. all i need is some butter and i am in heaven. actually, they don't really even need butter - they are that good. the recipe i use is posted on all recipes, although i have no idea what the original recipe post is called. banana bread recipe II? yeah, that must be it. i'm sure of it.

a lot of time i never bake/cook things as long as the recipe suggests. i always like things underdone. however, in this case, i like banana bread to be 'done.' the tops end up being almost crunchy, sweet goodness. so good.


banana bread muffins + printable version

-- original recipe from all recipes

3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 c butter, melted
1 c sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 c flour

preheat oven to 350. line 12 - 16 cupcake tins with paper liners. i always end up with a different amount of muffins every time i make these. it just depends on how big your bananas are or how many you use. like today, i only had two medium size bananas and it made about 13 muffins, filled 2/3 of the way. or spray with non-stick spray.

in a large mixing bowl, mix melted butter into mashed bananas. mix in sugar, egg, and vanilla.

sprinkle baking soda & salt over banana mixture. mix to combine. add flour in last. mix until just combined.

add about 2 Tbsp of batter to each liner. or about 2/3 full. bake for 18-20 minutes. like i said earlier, i like them a little dark so i end up closer to 20 minutes.


**if you want to bake this as a loaf, the original directions say to pour mixture into a buttered 4 x 8 inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour at 350. cool on rack and remove pan to slice. like i said, i never have much luck with banana bread loaves. but i'm sure you won't have any problems!