Food,  Fruit,  Healthy,  Muffins

Sugar Spot Banana Cranberry Muffins

March 22, 2011 /

OK so…for some reason I cannot comment on ANYONE’S blog haha. I am trying to post things on Foodbuzz on all your posts. Sorry fellow foodies! I feel bad but for some reason I am just not able to comment. Big bummer because there is so many great recipes out there that I totally wanna compliment too! Grr…hopefully the cyber world gets itself figured out!

I am seriously struggling with the time change! I thought it would be much easier for me to get used to, but I am having a hard time. Yesterday was really tough because it felt like I was getting up at 3am, when it was really 6am eastern time. Then, last night I had rehearsal for dance until about 11:15pm (which means I got home right before 11:45pm). You would think that I would be able to go to sleep after the Monday I had and feeling like it was so early when I woke up. NOPE! I was up until 2am just laying in bed not able to go to sleep haha. Sheesh…so as you can imagine, I am WORN OUT! I am ready for some sleep. Hell or high water this girl is going to go bed before 10pm tonight! ::crosses fingers::

Muffins have been my latest obsession. I made the Oat Topped Fig Muffins not too long ago and I really enjoyed how easy it was to make them and then how great they turned out. Not to mention that muffins are on my OK’ed list of not being “sweets” for Lent. I don’t consider a muffin a dessert…unless it has chocolate in it hehe ;-). Anyways, so I have been looking for new recipes to try. I wanted to make a muffin that I could use the things I had in the house. For example, I had 2 bananas before I went to California so needless to say they were ready for banana bread when I got back (personally, I am one of those people that prefers to eat bananas with brown spots on them…I cannot eat a banana that is green or has no spots haha. I just can’t.)

I looked up some recipes and saw a few that looked interesting but nothing that really jumped out at me. Then, I saw the title of the muffin “Sugar Spot Banana Muffins”. How cute is that name? The recipe stated “Those tiny brown spots on ripe bananas are called sugar spots. Fruits that have them make the sweetest muffins”. I wasn’t completely sold on this recipe just yet though. I felt like it was missing something. I decided to substitute some wheat flour for a portion of the all purpose flour and I also decided to add some dried cranberries because I thought it would be a good extra little treat in those banana muffins. AND, I had to add a topping to the muffin 😀

Ingredients for Sugar Spot Muffins:

  • 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg white
  • 3/4 cup mashed rip banana (2 medium sized bananas)
  • 1/3 cup fat-free milk
  • 5/6 cup all purpose flour (or 1/2 + 1/3)
  • 1/2 cup wheat flour
  • 2/3 cup honey-crunch wheat germ
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup dried cranberries
  • Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350º.

Combine brown sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and egg white in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add banana and milk, beat well.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups and level each with a knife. Combine flours, wheat germ (which you can normally find in your grocery store cereal isle), baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk together. Add this to the sugar mixture and beat just until moist.

Add in your dried cranberries and fold in with a spatula.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Place some extra brown sugar and cranberries on top of muffins if desired (I used 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and a handful of cranberries to cover the entire 12 muffins). Bake for 22 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Cool in pan for 5 minutes on a wire rack. Take from pan and let cool completely on wire rack.

Nutritional facts: 183 calories, 5.7 g fat, Carbs 30g, Protein 4.3g

Yup that’s right people! Another muffin that not only tastes good but also is good FOR you! You won’t feel bad at all when snacking on these muffins that are only 180 calories each! Hope you are all having a fantastic beginning to your week!

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