Banana Bread Mini Muffins

So I work at home. I work for GoDaddy and they are nice enough to allow me to pretty much work from home all the time. I love it. I don’t have to drive 40 minutes away and sit in a desk where I am distracted by everyone around me. I can just wake up, take a shower, slip into my sport shorts (gym shorts?) and a t-shirt and go downstairs and start working. Its great, that is until my wife starts baking something that smells amazing!

Now there’s a disclaimer on this. I know I post a lot of desserts and a lot of breakfast sweets but we, my wife and I, pretty much live a low carb lifestyle. We usually eat low carb during the week then eat whatever, in moderation, on the weekend. I lost about 50 lbs. this way and have kept it off for 4 years. It’s the way to live if you want to feel real good.

Now back to the amazing smell that wafted into my office the other day. At first I was kind of confused that my wife was baking, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. What I didn’t realize was that we had a whole slew of kids over playing in the pool. I didn’t go to investigate. Not sure why. It probably had to do with work or some such thing. About an hour later she comes in with this banana bread mini muffin with frosting on the top and pops it in my mouth. It was amazing! It was light but packed with flavor. Don’t go overboard with the bananas otherwise the muffins will be heavy, and we don’t like heavy muffins.

[print_this]

Banana Bread Mini Muffins w/ Browned Butter Icing

Adapted and tweaked from The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
Yield: About 24 mini muffins

Muffins Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C. Flour
• 1 1/2 t. Baking powder
• 1/4 t. Baking soda
• 1/4 t. Ground Cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 C. Mashed bananas (1 1/2 medium)
• 3/4 C. Sugar
• 1/4 C. Oil
• 2 t. Lemon Zest (don’t skip this, it makes the muffins)

Browned Butter Icing Ingredients

• 1/4 C. butter
• 2 C. Powdered sugar
• 1/2 t. Vanilla
• 1 1/2 T. Milk or more for desired consistency

Directions

1. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. In another bowl mix together bananas, egg, sugar, lemon zest and oil
3. Add egg mixture into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Spoon batter into mini muffin tin that has been greased.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 min. Let cool in pan for 5 min. then remove them on to cooling rack.
6. While the muffins are baking, cut the butter into pieces. Place in a medium skillet. Melt the butter over medium heat, swirling it in the pan occasionally. The butter will foam and pop, so be careful. Continue to swirl the pan often. Remove pan from heat once the butter starts to brown and smells nutty. There will be small brown bits on the bottom. The butter should be an amber color.
7. Take butter off heat and mix in the rest of the icing ingredients right there in the pan. Whisk until combined.
8. Dip tops of min muffins into icing and let stand for a little while while it sets up. Enjoy!

[/print_this]