Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins

This recipe is originally for a banana bread but I made it into muffins so that I could freeze them and take them out as needed (they never made it into the freezer!).  Yet again, another perfect solution to overripe bananas that are calling for fruit flies.  I happen to love chocolate in my banana bread, but the hubby does not – so these are pretty “clean” in that department, but you could totally add in chocolate chips or walnuts.  To be honest, though, the cinnamon swirl really seemed to do the trick.

INGREDIENTS

THE BANANA BREAD

• 3-4 overripe bananas, smashed up
• 1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour

THE SWIRL

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

HOW TO MAKE IT

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Line your muffin pan with 12 paper liners or spray a 9×5″ loaf pan with cooking spray
• Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together
• Sprinkle baking soda and salt around on top of the banana mixture; then gently stir in flour
• Be careful not to over-mix!
• In a small dish, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon
• Fill the paper liners halfway with batter then evenly distribute 1/2 the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the batter (or add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle half, or a little more than half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the batter in the pan)
• Add the rest of the batter to the paper liners and then sprinkle the leftover cinnamon-sugar on top (or sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon-sugar all over the loaf)
• Bake for 20-25 minutes (50-60 minutes for a 9×5″ loaf)

Source: Recipe adapted from Sandwich Hoss