Curtis Stone’s Recipe for Crunchy Pecan-Banana Coffee Cake Muffins

Whether it’s for a quick breakfast on the go or an after-dinner bite, everybody loves a muffin. Heck, even Lady Gaga likes to bluff with her muffin. (We’re sure she’s talking about baked goods…right?) So when Chef Curtis Stone (whom we chatted with yesterday!) offered to share one of his Post Great Grains’ healthy banana muffin recipes with us and our readers, we happily nibbled.

This banana muffins recipe serves 12 and plays up the healthy angle by using unbleached flour, canola oil, coarsely mashed bananas and yogurt. Great Grains Crunchy Pecan cereal adds the whole-grain goodness in both the cinnamony streusel topping and the batter. With just 10 grams of fat and 271 calories per muffin—and a prep time of 15 minutes and a cook time of 25 minutes—these muffins are healthy and quick to make, but they taste indulgent!

Great Grains Crunchy Pecan-Banana Coffee Cake Muffins Recipe by Curtis Stone

Ingredients

Streusel:
1/3 c unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
3/4 c Great Grains Crunchy Pecan cereal

Batter:
1 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 ripe bananas (14 ounces total), peeled
1 c plain lowfat yogurt
1/3 c canola oil
1 large egg white
1 1/4 c Great Grains Crunchy Pecan cereal

Directions

For the streusel:
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Toss the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl to blend.
3. Stir in the oil and maple syrup. Stir in the cereal. Set the streusel aside.

For the batter:
1. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl to blend.
2. Using a fork, coarsely mash the bananas in a large bowl.
3. Stir in the yogurt, oil and egg white.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the yogurt mixture and stir just until blended.
5. Stir in the cereal. The batter will be thick.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups.
7. Sprinkle the streusel over, gently pressing it into the top of the batter.
8. Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
9. Cool 5 minutes in the pan on a cooling rack.
10. Remove the muffins from the pan and cool completely on the rack. (The muffins can be made one day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

Nosh, nosh…crunchy nutty banana-muffin recipe goodness…Curtis Stone recipes are the best! —Jenn