Cra-nana Crumb Muffins

I like cute--things that look or sound cute, animals, tiny baby sneakers, frozen yogurt shops.  So, when I woke up at 4 AM on a Saturday to bake before my exam, I thought I'd try to be cute and name these muffins. 

You might be wondering why someone would wake up that early to bake for no particular reason or why they would schedule an exam on a Saturday.

1. I had bananas that were horribly overripe.  I don't like eating overripe bananas but hate wasting food.
2. Working Monday-Friday makes it hard to get to the testing centers during the week to take exams.
3. Baking makes me happy.  Stress + exam = Fail.  Muffins + exam = Probably not Fail

Back to the muffins. The bananas were small and only enough to make one loaf of banana bread or a dozen muffins.  I knew I was going hiking and should probably spread the love (a.k.a. muffins!) and the next day I was going home to see my family and how terrible would I feel if I hoarded baked goods rather than sharing them.  So I decided instead to dig through my food stores and find those dried cranberries that I had hidden so I wouldn't eat them all in one sitting several months ago and make two dozen cranberry and banana muffins with a yum crumb topping.

Generally, I just make my Mom's famous banana bread with overripe bananas which is the only real recipe that I follow to a T, but I was trying so hard to be cute and creative!  Cra-nana Crumb!  Humor me; it's so much cuter when you say it with a smile!

Per usual, I didn't write down the measurements while baking so this is more or less the recipe, I promise they'll still taste delicious.  I also increased the banana content because they really could've been more banana-y.

For the muffins:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp canola/vegetable oil
• 4 overripe bananas, mashed or pureed if you're a texture person
• 1 cup applesauce (if you use unsweetened kind you might want to add a little extra sugar)
• 1 cup dried cranberries 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line muffin pans or lightly grease and flour.  This recipe yields.
2. Mix the dried cranberries in 1/2 cup of the applesauce to soften them up.
3. In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.
4. In another bowl beat the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, bananas and remaining applesauce.  Then add the granulated and brown sugar.
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, adding the cranberries last.  Batter will be slightly thick and lumpy depending on how well you mashed those bananas.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, filling each cup 3/4 full.
7. Sprinkle crumb topping over each muffin.
8. Pop them in pre-heated oven for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

*  Note:  I tried to be "healthy" and use applesauce in lieu of butter or more canola oil.  No, I'm not a healthy nut but I didn't want to completely negate the hiking.  If you want these to be just slightly more delicious and I'm talking maybe a tenth more delicious, you can use 2/3 cup melted butter or canola/vegetable oil.  If you want to be even healthier, skip the crumb topping...but who wants to be that healthy all of the time?

For the crumb topping:

• 3 Tbsp cold butter, diced
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Mix the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon.
2. Cut in the butter until mixture is coarse and crumbly.  If using a food processor mix the dry ingredients together first.  Then slowly add in pieces of very cold butter pulsing until mixture is coarse.  (If the butter is soft or if you mix too much it'll dough together.)

None of my family or friends caught on to the cute and creative name.  Mom gave the standard response, "Uh-huh...cute.  Really glad you just brought me a handful of weeds and bugs from the backyard, sweetie."  Which was odd because my mom isn't the type to humor, but at least she gave me the go ahead to save this in the recipe book.  But, what made me the happiest was my brother's response.  Alexander in surprised voice said, "Wow.  These muffins are amazing!  They remind me of autumn and Thanksgiving.  Yeah...he's a 21 year old college student who says things like "Autumn" instead of "Fall" and actually likes being nice to his older sister.  I think that earns him seconds and thirds.  And yeah...that's how good these muffins are.  Really what's cuter and happier than that?