Mom's Banana Muffins

Growing up, my mom loved (and still does) to go blackberry and blueberry picking.

Near dad's shop there was an area that grew tons of wild blackberry bushes that we would go picking in.  The thing was, there was a barbed wire fence up from when there used to be cows in that particular area.  We had to carefully climb through the barbed wire, avoid stepping on small pear cactus (or old cow pie), and then (watching out for rattlesnakes) we would hike around looking for juicy blackberries to fill our buckets.

I don't remember a summer that I didn't have scratches and pricks all over my arms, lol.  We would go out several times, usually a day or two after a really good rain shower, and gather pounds and pounds of wild blackberries.  Mom's bucket was always a lot more full than ours since she seemed to have the willpower to not eat every sweet, juicy berry she came across.  It is funny to recall how the kids mouth's and mom's fingertips would be stained purple.

Blueberry picking was a lot more fun for us, no prickly bushes at least.  We didn't do this too much since we usually had to find a "U pick" place.  We didn't always have the money to pay by the pound, so we made do with just getting a little bit when we went and gathering more blackberries.

After a morning of picking we would go home, wash the berries and pick out any twigs and leaves, then bag them up to be labeled and frozen.  Mom would make amazing pies, muffins, just about anything you could think of, even when the berries were out of season.

I am not sure when my mom started making these muffins, but they are a family favorite.  After a while she had to start doubling the recipe because they went so fast.  The recipe calls for blueberries, however, occasionally instead of blueberries she would substitute blackberries.  Mmmm so good.

Ingredients:

2 extra ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup blueberries/blackberries
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/8 cup flour
1 1/8 cup wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
handful or so chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Puree the banana in a blender/food processor, should be about 1 cup.

2. In a medium bowl, combine banana puree, eggs, sugar and applesauce until well blended.

3. In a separate large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until evenly moistened.

4. Spoon the batter into well greased 2 1/2 inch muffin cups.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of muffin comes out clean.

These really are best served warm.

This recipe yields 12 muffins.