Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding

After coming home from a quick weekend getaway, I realize that we have almost a full bag of buttermilk bread about to go stale. I wanted to avoid the inevitable waste, so I figured that I should whip up something to make it useful.

I found this recipe for pudding that had good reviews online and just tweaked it up a little bit to make it not too sweet. This is so yummy! My husband and son inhaled it. It's really good for using up old bread and over ripe bananas which is always the case in our house.

Banana Crumb Muffin

There's this one, lone banana on our counter top staring me down for days now. It is getting brown and ugly but I didn't want to throw it away. I thought about baking a banana bread but ONE banana would not be enough. Then it struck me...Muffins! I can make banana muffins!

I thought about it some more. I didn't want ordinary looking banana muffins that's actually just banana bread in a cuter package so I went to my ever dependable best friend - Google. And found this one from Allrecipes.com which had over 5,000 reviews and had 5 stars.

Here's my modified version and some tips to remember. Please don't get confused with my photos. I only had one banana so I had to adjust the recipe accordingly.

BANANA CRUMB MUFFIN

Servings: 10-12

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed (brown with age is the best)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted (and cooled)
• 1 cup shelled walnuts or pecans (optional)
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

OPTIONAL (if adding nuts): Place nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or  until lightly toasted. Let cool and then chop coursely.

In a large bowl, mix together 1-1/2 cups flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, white sugar, egg and melted butter.

Beat the mashed bananas mixture. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.


OPTIONAL: Fold in the chopped nuts. Leave a few nuts to be used as topping - about 2-3 tablespoons.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups (I use an ice cream scoop to do this. And also put water on the unused muffin cups/spaces for even baking). Sprinkle the brown sugar topping over muffins. 


OPTIONAL: Top with the remaining nuts.

Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean.  

Banana Crumb Muffin