One food that always makes me happy is the Perfect Banana. Freckled all over, a few days past ripe, sweet and slightly squishy… that is the best way to have a banana. Especially dipped in peanut butter.

But what do you do when they’ve gotten past the freckled stage and have moved on to almost solid brown? Can’t let a perfect banana go to waste… it’s banana baking time! There are few things I love more than oven fresh banana bread… and among those few things is this recipe for peanut butter banana muffins.

The recipe calls for egg white, to be healthy; I dislike using just egg whites because then what do you do with the yolk? Throw it away? Seems awfully wasteful.. but I didn’t want them to be too eggy, so I used an egg white substitute I found: 1/2 cup applesauce plus 1/4 tsp baking powder for every egg white. Apparently you can also substitute 1/2 of a mashed banana plus 1/4 tsp baking powder for a whole egg, as well, which would probably work nicely in this recipe. Without the egg, the muffins didn’t puff up like they normally might, but I liked that better since I was using my heart-shaped silicone pan.

I also didn’t have any plain yogurt on hand, so I used sour cream. And in a few of the muffins, I added dark chocolate chunks; in a few others, I sprinkled coconut. Mm-mm.

Banana Peanut Butter Muffins
1/2 c Peanut Butter
1/2 c Plain Yogurt or Sour Cream
1/2 c Mashed Banana (about 1 banana)
1 c Flour (i used 1/2 c oat flour and 1/2 cup white flour)
1/2 c Applesauce with 1/4 tsp Baking Powder mixed
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 c Brown Sugar

Preheat the oven to 350° and spray your pan with nonstick spray (i used Pam with Flour for baking) or line with paper muffin cups. Mash Banana to your liking (i prefer to still have some small banana chunks), and mix with Peanut Butter and Sugar until well blended. Add Yogurt (or Sour Cream) and Applesauce with Baking Powder, mix. In a separate bowl, stir together the remaining dry ingredients: Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt, Flour. Mix dry ingredients in until combined, then spoon into muffin cups until 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes (less for mini muffins, more for extra large muffins).

Optional: before baking, add dark chocolate chips or coconut (or both!) for prime deliciousness.

Yields 12 average sized muffins.

Make sure to eat one fresh out of the oven (but not burn-worthy) with a big glass of milk.

Not only are these Peanut Butter Banana Muffins incredibly delicious, they’re good for you too! A wonderful breakfast treat or a great snack to have with mid-morning coffee.

And I just stopped over to the Craft Hope website to see how the dolly project ended up… they received 405 Dollies. I am filled with joy at the goodness of the online crafty community… there’s just so much love. And can you find my dolly (click for larger image)? I found him! It’s like Where’s Waldo, and he resembles Waldo a bit too!