Blueberry Banana Bread

Getting as much baking in as I can before the summer months when it just isn't as much fun to bake the things that take time in an oven.  Soon there will be more grilling recipes and ice cream. YUM!  I am ready. 

But for now, going to bake when I can because there is nothing that tastes better or smells better than any kind of bread baking in the oven. It is totally intoxicating and I wish they could bottle the smell!

BLUEBERRY BANANA BREAD

adapted from The Kitchen Magpie

1/2 c. butter
1 c. cane sugar (I use unrefined)
2 large eggs
1 c. ripe mashed bananas (2-3 large)
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 t. baking spice
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 c. blueberries

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour a 9x5" loaf pan.  Set aside.

Combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl and whisk till well mixed. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until well blended and light.  Beat in one egg at a time and beat until smooth each time.  Add the vanilla and slowly beat in the mashed bananas..  Mix well.

Add in the flour mixture and fold gently with a rubber spatula until well combined and no streaks of flour show in the batter.  Then fold in the blueberries just until evenly distributed in the batter (as much as possible).

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake in the oven 50-60 minutes, checking at 50 minutes with a cake tester or toothpick to see if it is done.  I used a Breville air fryer convection oven and set it on Bake and it took the full 60 minutes.  Sometimes a convection oven will take much less time  - it just depends on the batter, or so I am discovering!

So full of blueberries and so yummy.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert right side up onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This bread was moist and delicious and super easy to make!

Pin It Now!

Zucchini Banana Blueberry Muffins

This is a great time of year when zucchini and blueberries are plentiful and reasonably priced and what a great way to utilize these fresh flavors.  I don't think I would ever have put all three together so I am thrilled that someone else tried it first with success.  These are not only tasty, but they are healthy with no butter (just coconut oil) and very little sugar.  And moist?  They are incredibly moist and flavorful and you honestly forget that they are healthy because all you taste are the bananas and blueberries exploding with flavor with each bite.  These are great for breakfast but also as a midday snack.  And they freeze really well.

You will be SO glad you tried this recipe - I am!

Zucchini Banana Blueberry Muffins

adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour

3/4 t. baking powder

3/4 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 t. ground cinnamon

2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (will yield 1 cup)

1/4 c. organic cane sugar

1/4 c. organic light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1/3 c. melted coconut oil, cooled

1 t. vanilla extract (I use Vanilla Bean Extract Crush from King Arthur Flour)\

1 c. shredded zucchini

1 c. fresh blueberries

Turbinado or Demera sugar for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Line muffin pan with paper liners.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.  Set aside. 

In a large bowl, mix the mashed banana, cane sugar, brown sugar, egg, coconut oil, and vanilla.  Stir until well combined.  Add the flour mixture and fold gently until all of the flour is incorporated. Don't over mix. Place the shredded zucchini in a couple of paper towels and squeeze to remove most of the excess moisture.  Fold the zucchini into the batter and then fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into the lined muffin cups, about 3/4 full.  Sprinkle the tops with turbinado or demera sugar (optional).  Bake 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean..  Cool muffins on a wire rack.

Blueberries and zucchini visibly throughout

with the subtle flavor of the banana in the batter.

Definitely good enough to eat - guilt free!

Pin It Now!

Skinny Banana Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins - Low Sugar

It's muffin time again.  I know that the fresh fruit of summer will be gone soon, so I want to take advantage of every tantalizing combination that I can!

My bananas have been ripening faster than I can use them, so this recipe was the perfect one to pair my mushy bananas and super sweet and LARGE raspberries!  My neighbor loved the combination so much that she made the recipe using white chocolate chips.  That was a great change and I will do that next time (see picture at the bottom!)

SKINNY RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA MUFFINS - low sugar

adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 c. honey

1/4 c. Splenda brown sugar blend

1 cup mashed banana (about three medium bananas)

1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt (I used Yoplait honey vanilla)

1 egg, beaten (I use x-lge)

3/4 cup milk (I used 1/2 cup vanilla coconut milk & 1/4 cup Coffeemate GS Caramel & Coconut Creamer)

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used a combination of dark and milk chocolate chips)

 1 3/4 cups fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 325.  Spray regular muffin tin with non cooking spray.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.  Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk the honey and Splenda brown sugar blend together. It will be VERY thick.  Add the mashed bananas, yogurt and beaten egg. Gently pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold them all together. It will be very thick.  Add the milk slowly and continue to gently fold the ingredients together. The milk will thin the batter a little.  Then fold in the chocolate chips.  Finally fold in the raspberries just until blended so they don't crush and turn the batter red!  Overmixing will cause tough muffins.

Divide the batter into 12 muffin cups.  Fill them to the top.  Sprinkle the tops with sparkling sugar if desired.

Bake for 17-18 minutes or until golden brown.. Allow the muffins to cool on a wire rack.

 These are chock full of raspberries and chocolate.  The flavor combination is soooooo good!

Sparkling sugar makes everything better!

Brimming with raspberries. You can see the steam on the plate!

Spotlight on this muffin with the white chocolate chips.

I love all of the photo editing you can do with Pic Monkey.

Enjoy!!

Pin It Now!

Banana Blueberry Lemon Muffins

I know... it's almost too good to be true to have all of those ingredients playing together in one recipe.  And they do so really well!!

I am not particularly found of "regular" bananas. I will eat them in fruit salad or throw them in a smoothie, but if I want a piece of fruit, it's never a banana I reach for.

However, I absolutely LOVE them in breads and muffins and any other baked concoction. Strange I know, but true! And I had quite a few very ripe bananas (that usually end up in the freezer for smoothies), big beautiful blueberries that I had picked up at Trader Joe's, and my ever faithful lemons!  So I was ready to tackle this recipe.  Banana Blueberry Lemon Muffins

It was super easy to put together and the results were great.  The banana was definitely the predominate flavor, but also led to the extreme moistness of the muffin.  The only change I made to the recipe was to put the lemon rind INTO the batter rather than on top.  Then I just topped the muffins with sparkling sugar!!

Is your mouth watering?? You can see the berries bursting!!

These two muffins made their way to my neighbor!!

And of course I had to sample one!!

It needed a LOT of sampling!! YUM!

Pin It Now!