Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins

Bring the bakery or coffee shop to your own kitchen with these Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins and some freshly brewed Iced Cafe au Lait.

The other day I sat in one of our local coffee shops marveling at the plumpness of the muffins. They had the most perfect rise to them and I kid you not; they were practically begging me to free them from behind the display counter.  Of course, I complied but the real dilemma was whether I wanted the blueberry with its streusel topping or the banana that I swear made the entire place smell like Grandma’s kitchen? Blueberry or banana…..

I opted for the banana because I’m quite certain they were fresh out of the oven.

And them I came home and tinkered with this Banana Nut Bread recipe a couple of times until I got it to work, in muffin size, with the same sky high topper.

The cupcake size is much smaller than the jumbo size being offered at the coffee shop, but I was in a hurry to taste test. I’m confident a jumbo size would work as well, you would just need to add on additional baking time- probably somewhere in the 30-45 minute ballpark.

These little lovelies, however,  take less than 20 minutes from start to finish!

The secret to their “muffin tops” is the additional baking powder, but don’t just use the baking powder you already have open. Go ahead and open a brand new box of baking powder.

Often times my banana bread that rises but crashes and burns in the center can be attributed to less than fresh baking powder.

I’ve sort of made it my mantra when requesting any baked good to rise beautifully to just suck it up and open a new box of baking powder.

 

Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Bring the neighborhood bakery or coffee shop to your own home with these Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins and Iced Cafe au Lait!

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Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 1 cup pecans, chopped and divided

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray (or line with paper liners).


In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, sugars, eggs, milk, vanilla and bananas. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, gently combine everything together.

Fold in half of the chopped pecans (or walnuts).


Divide the batter into the muffin tins, and sprinkle the remaining pecans on top.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15-18 minutes; or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Place them into some laser cut cupcake wrappers (I’ve had these leftover from my bestie’s daughters birthday party for nearly 2 years!) and serve with some Iced Cafe au Lait to create the coffee shop ambiance right from home. Sit back and think of all the money you just saved by making an entire dozen of Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins for likely the cost of what you spent on that single muffin!