Baby, it's cold outside! Time to bake Banana Walnut Muffins

Banana Walnut Muffins

I avoided doing some baking this past weekend as I did not want to warm up the house.  Yep, it was hovering around 70 degrees Fahrenheit on both Friday and Saturday. It was gorgeous out!  We actually switched up the meals we had planned for the week because we did not want to run the oven for hours.  And now... it's 13 degrees out. It's expected to get to five below zero degrees tonight and then, tomorrow night, it's expected to get to 15 degrees below zero degrees.  I think the expected high temperature on Wednesday is five below zero degrees.  Just in case you lost track, those are all temperatures in Fahrenheit.  Ha, ha!  Needless to say... I had no qualms about cranking up the oven tonight after work and making these muffins. They are pretty straight forward muffins.  You combine the first four (dry) ingredients in one bowl, and then you combine the next five ingredients in another bowl.  You make a well in the dry ingredients and then dump the wet ingredients (including the nuts) into the dry ingredients all at once. Then you stir the ingredients gently just until the dry ingredients are moistened (don't over mix). 

I made a double batch and sprayed the muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.  The recipe calls for baking at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. I know my oven and I know my muffin pans, and I am at over 5,000 feet altitude, so I reduced my oven temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and my muffins were done in about 16 minutes.  What lovely tops these muffins have! The tip on the recipe card reads, "To ensure round muffin tops, grease only the bottom and halfway up the sides of each muffin cup."  I read that after generously spraying my muffin pans, so I wiped off some of the excess spray with a paper towel.  These muffins are only slightly sweet, which I prefer.  I added about 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients.  I just can't follow a recipe exactly.  I used 4 bananas to equal 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (just in case you were wondering if you had enough over ripe bananas on hand).