Really Pretty Good Banana-Granola Muffins

You can stop smirking. I made this recipe several times, and I have to say, its really good, considering what it is. The impetus behind this was the bake sale sponsored by Boy 1's class at school. After some discussion, I decided it was better to bake ourselves rather than buy baked goods and donate them. However, our kids school is, as they say "nut free," at least as it applies to legumes and tree nuts. I wanted to make something that would last the whole day, and I didn't want to bake a chocolate based item. And thus banana-granola muffins were born. Starting with a recipe from the Joy of Cooking and significantly changing the proportion of ingredients: butter (more is better), amount of bananas (more is better) and sugar (less is better) I came up with an easy, reproducible recipe that you can feed to your health conscious friends to lure them into a false sense of security before whipping out the bacon.

INGREDIENTS

6 bananas
1 cup "breakfast" granola, chopped a bit in a food processor

1 3/4 sticks butter
1 cup and two tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups flower (measured a bit heavy)

2 eggs and 2 egg whites (use a third egg if the eggs are on the smaller side)

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Food processor
Muffin pan, lightly greased

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.

Add the butter and sugar to the food processor with metal blade in. Mix together until you form a well mixed paste of these items. Add the dry ingredients to this and mix together. Add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Crush three bananas a bit with your hand and mix those in thoroughly, too. Crush the other three bananas and add these and the granola and just mix to distribute these ingredients in the batter.

Pour the mixture to just below the top of the muffin tins. There will likely be a bit left over, which you can use with a second tin or make a thin "muffin top" in with a pie tin (this cooks in 15 minutes, tops).

Place in the oven. The cooking time is estimated to be about 25 to 30 minutes in my oven. In general they are ready when they look light brown in a uniform manner. Cool a bit before removing them from the tins.