Chunky Monkey Banana Nut Muffins
Perfectly moist muffins filled to the brim with chopped walnuts and of course a rich banana flavor.
Like many of my other personally curated recipes, my Chunky Monkey Banana Nut Muffins are one of my pride and joys. It took me years to perfect this recipe but I’ve finally done it! I’ve created a perfectly moist banana muffin that isn’t filled with a bunch of added sugar. Just the pure sweet taste of ripe bananas with a hint of nuttiness from the chunky chopped walnuts. Sweet, simple and a tad bit healthier than your average muffin.
Chunky Monkey Banana Nut Muffins
4 large very ripe bananas
½ cup unsalted brown butter, room temp butter melted in
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs. room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup chopped walnuts plus ¼ cup more for topping
Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
Leave bananas in the peel and place them on a foil-lined baking sheet, bake for 15 minutes. Cool bananas completely.
While the bananas are roasting, heat half the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat for about 2 to 4 minutes or until it is lightly browned and smells slightly like caramel. Set aside for a minute to cool slightly before adding the remainder of your butter. Mix the butter until it’s fully melted into the browned butter.
Line your muffin pan with baking papers, set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Mix until combined.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Scrape the bananas out of the peel into a bowl and squeeze any extra juice from the peel, mash with a fork. Add the mashed bananas into the butter mixture until fully incorporated.
Add the buttermilk and mix well. The mixture may look curdled don’t worry, this is normal.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Add to the banana mixture and mix just until the flour is almost incorporated, Stir in the walnuts until the flour is completely incorporated. Please take care to not over mix the batter, you only need to mix until you see no more pockets of flour.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan or a paper lined muffin tins. Top with additional chopped walnuts and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean with a few dry crumbs.
Cool muffins in the tin for 5 minutes before removing from the tins to finish cooling on a wire rack. You can serve your muffins slightly warm or wait until completely cooled.
*Notes: If you want a more indulgent muffin, feel free to add chocolate chips as well. The baking time might change slightly so start checking the muffin’s doneness at 32 minutes.
If you don’t have buttermilk you can easily substitute it with whole milk. It won’t be as flavorful but it will have the richness that is required for a delicious muffin.
It’s important to squeeze the banana juices from the peels after they are roasted. The juice holds a lot of natural sugars which equals flavor. Lots and lots of flavor!