Banana Blueberry Muffins

Several years ago, my sister, Trudi, gave me a basic muffin recipe.  This is a great flexible muffin recipe that you can add whatever kind of fruit you like or have on hand.  It doesn't have a large amount of sugar in the original recipe, so the substitution is fairly simple.  But, it is a  No Sugar Added  recipe, because there are natural sugars in the fruit and the milk.

What I have discovered as I have been making these with Splenda, is that the muffins will stay moist if you add a little more moisture in order to take the place of the moisture in the sugar.  Most of the time, a half cup of no-sugar-added applesauce is the perfect addition, since it doesn't really add any flavor to conflict with your other flavors of choice.

So in this case I had a couple of bananas that were on their way out, but plain banana muffins just didn't sound very exciting.  Then I remembered that I had frozen blueberries in my freezer that I had picked up at a local blueberry farm back in June.  Since I had two bananas and you really only need one for this recipe, I decided that I didn't need to add any applesauce.

Here's the basic recipe:

• 1 3/4 c. flour
• 1/3 c. Splenda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 2 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. nutmeg
• 1/3 c. oil
• 1 egg
• 3/4 c. milk (I use 2%, just because that is what I have in my fridge on a regular basis)
• fruit and/or flavorings of your choice  (in this recipe, I used two bananas and about 3/4 c. frozen blueberries)

This is a very easy to put together batter; you just put everything in a bowl and mix with a whisk or a spatula.

 For my bananas, I just used a smaller bowl and mashed them really well before adding them into the batter.  Once they were well incorporated, I added the blueberries, straight from the freezer.  Voila....the batter is done.

In all the years that I have baked muffins, they have always come out a little on the small side.  So one morning when making muffins this last summer, I decided to do what you do in the 21st century when you want to know how to do something...I Googled it!  And I found The Prepared Pantry.  They had it layed out in three easy steps!  1)  Fill your muffin tins full; 2) Make sure that your batter is thick (this recipe does make a thick batter); and 3) Bake them at a high temp (425) for the first few minutes.  Great tips!  They work like a charm.

 So the next step is to fill the muffin tin.  Spray your cups.  Remember that we are going to fill the muffin cups full; so while this recipe would make 12 regular size muffins, depending on the amount of fruit you add, you will probably only get 9 or 10.  You may want to hold off on spraying the last few cups until you see how far your batter is going to go.  Add a little water to the empty cups.  Preheat your oven to 425.  This recipe calls to bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.  I bake it at 425 for 7 minutes and then turn the temp down to 400 for an additional 10 minutes.

And this is what your muffins will look like...high tops, moist and fresh.  They look like you could buy them in a bakery.  I'm sure that I don't have to tell you that they taste amazing hot out of the oven, with a little I Can't Believe It's Not Butter melting into those hot, bursting blueberries...enjoy!

Note: There are so many choices for these muffins; blueberries, blackberries, apples, pineapple, dried cranberries, raisins, pecans, etc.  Start to think of some combinations and you can come up with your own original flavor of muffin.