Caramelized Banana Muffins バナナマフィン

Delicious and easy banana muffins made with caramelized banana and Nutella swirl on top!  Caramelizing the banana helps bring out and enhance the flavor.

My family loves my Banana Bread that I’ve been making since my college days.  When they are tired of it, this Caramelized Banana Muffin is my go to recipe.

If you make banana muffins but not with caramelized bananas, you have to give this recipe a try!  Caramelized bananas add so much flavors to the muffins and they are absolutely delicious!

Overripe Bananas, Make Caramelized Banana Muffins!

Since my children started to eat solid food, bananas are always in the kitchen.  They snack on them between meals, put them in their yogurt, or eat them with pancakes and crepes on weekends.

But once in a while, my children would go through “no more banana” stage, and it always happens all of the sudden without any warning.  Luckily, I know they will always eat my banana muffins or Banana Bread so I don’t have to end up eating all the bananas myself.

How To Caramelize Bananas

This banana muffins recipe uses caramelized bananas instead of mashed banana in the batter.

To make caramelized bananas, put sugar and water in a saucepan and caramelize the sugar first.  Then add the banana slices and coat them with the caramelized sugar.  And finally fold in the caramelized bananas into the batter.

Yes it’s an extra step, but believe me it’s totally worth it!

Add Nutella Swirl to Caramelized Banana Muffins

I usually put one slice of banana on top of my muffins (see below), but once in awhile I add Nutella to my banana muffins.  Just lightly swirl Nutella into the batter…and the kids love it!

If you think they are too sweet and want to pick either caramelized bananas or Nutella, of course pick caramelized bananas for this recipe.

Other snacks I make with banana include Frozen Chocolate Covered Banana treats, they are refreshing and delightful during hot weather.

Enjoy the muffins warm with your favorite cup of hot tea, milk or coffee.

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4.82 from 11 votes

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Caramelized Banana Muffins

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Total Time

50 mins

 

Delicious and easy banana muffins made with caramelized banana and Nutella swirl on top!  Caramelizing the banana helps bring out and enhance the flavor.

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: caramelized banana, muffin

Servings: 12 muffins

Author: Nami

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) (180 g)
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 2 overripe bananas (2 medium size, 11 oz, 300 g)
• ⅓ cup sugar (70 g; for caramelizing bananas)
• 3 Tbsp water
• ¾ cup unsalted butter (170 g, 12 Tbsp; at room temperature)
• ⅔ cup sugar (140 g)
• 2 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (at room temperature)
• ½ cup milk (120 ml; at room temperature)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 6 tsp Nutella (optional)

Instructions

1. Gather all the ingredients.

   

2. Preheat oven to 350 ºF (180 ºC). Lightly spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or line with cupcake liners.

3. Sift flour and baking powder and cut bananas into thin slices.

   

4. To make the caramel, cook sugar and water over medium heat in a small saucepan. Gently tilt the pan off the heat to distribute color evenly as the sugar caramelizes.

   

5. When the mixture turns into nice amber color, immediately add sliced bananas and coat with caramel and turn off the heat.

   

6. In the bowl of the electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high speed until soft. Then add sugar and mix until creamy and fluffy.

   

7. Whisk the eggs in a bowl, stir into the batter and blend well.

   

8. Add half of the flour to the batter and mix well. Then stir in half of the milk. Add the rest of flour and mix, and finally stir in the rest of milk. Mix well to combine.

   

9. Add vanilla extract and fold in the caramelized banana just until combined.

   

10. Spoon muffin batter into muffin tin ¾ full. If you like, top each muffin with ½ tsp of Nutella and use a skewer or chopstick to swirl it into the batter.

    

11. Bake muffins at 350 ºF (180 ºC) for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer insered in center comes out clean. Serve warm or let cool and store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

    

Recipe Notes

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on February 5, 2014.