Strawberry Banana Muffins #MuffinMonday

This whole wheat treat combines the sweetness of fresh local strawberries and ripe bananas with the tang of sour cream while using less sugar than you'd expect.

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You know how seeing one of those cooking videos ignites a craving? That's what happened here. I kept seeing a video for strawberry banana bread in my feed, or strawberry banana smoothies at the store, and the next thing you know I've got a hankering to make Strawberry Banana Muffins.

Conveniently I had fresh local strawberries from the farmer's market and ripe bananas on hand, plus the the endurance to make muffins. You see, while we're mostly unpacked in our new home, very little is set up exactly how it's going to stay. That means every time I cook something it involves finding the right ingredients, locating the proper tools, and doing a lot of  'hmmmm . . . this would work better over there, which means I should move that to this other place, and stick that other thing in a pile by the stairs to figure out where its new home will be . . .'.  It's the standard dance of the military family in a new place--finding the best way to arrange our stuff to quickly make a house into Home.

I've been absent from Muffin Monday--and sharing recipes in general. My time was filled with my daughter's high school graduation, finishing up the sale of our old house, and preparing to move 700 miles to join my spouse to end my year of solo parenting. It's hard to cook when you don't want to mess up the kitchen! I figured these muffins would be a great way to rejoin the Muffin Monday crew with a local, seasonal treat. See--we lucked out with local strawberries this year. We were still in Ohio for strawberry season, then arrived in Minnesota in time for another strawberry season!

The inspiration for this recipe is the Joan's Banana recipe in Muffins: A Cookbook by my mom's classmates Joan Bidinosti and Marilyn Wearing. Although I've made many muffins from this cookbook like Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins and Grilled Cherry Muffins, I'd never tried this recipe before. Once I saw sour cream on the ingredient list, however, I was set. I love to dunk strawberries into sour cream and brown sugar so the thought of combining them with banana in a muffin was irresistible.

I've made a video--my first one in the new kitchen--to show you how to make this recipe. Please check it out!

A few Notes about this recipe: first, I was surprised not to see baking powder or salt listed as ingredients. Instead, you'll dissolve baking soda into sour cream--which turns into a fluffy almost whipped cream-like concoction you can see in the above video--as the rising agent. Second, I cut back on the sugar and oil as is my custom. Using such sweet fruits--local strawberries are grown for their sweetness, not their ability to travel across the country--I figured I'd let the fruit flavors shine through. I also subbed in some brown sugar for the all white called for in the inspiring recipe and switched to whole wheat flour. Finally, I added strawberries alongside the bananas because once my craving started, nothing would satisfy it but that combination.

Strawberry Banana Muffins
By Kirsten Madaus

This whole wheat treat combines the sweetness of fresh local strawberries and ripe bananas with the tang of sour cream while using less sugar than you'd expect

Prep time: 00:10
Cook time: 00:12
Total time: 00:27

Yield: 3 dozen mini muffins
Ingredients:
⅓ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup packed brown sugar
⅓ cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas
1 cup chopped strawberries
3 Tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups whole wheat flour

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Add papers to mini muffin pan for easiest removal.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar and oil. Add eggs, then fruit. Beat thoroughly.

In a small dish, stir baking soda into sour cream until dissolved. It will get fluffy. Stir into banana-strawberry mixture.

Gently stir in flour until just combined.

Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cool in pan 5 minutes, then enjoy warm or at room temperature. These freeze well.

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page. Here's what we're baking up this month!

• Cheesy Corn Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chile and Raspberry Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Oreo Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Strawberry Banana Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Sweet Peach Cream Cheese Muffins from Food Lust People Love

For more recipes using bananas, please see my Banana Recipes Collection. For more recipes using strawberries, please see my Strawberry Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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PS--I'm not sure where my camera is, so all the photos video were taken with my phone. It's the best I can do right now.