One fruit that I am not overly fond of is bananas. You will never see me peeling a banana and eating it like that. They just don't appeal to me in that way. If you slice them into a bowl and add lashings of warm custard, or scatter slices of them over a bowl of crisp rice cereal. . . they somehow become much more appealing to me.
I cannot resist a nice thick slice of banana cream pie . . . and when they are really ripe, mashed and baked into cakes or muffins or squares . . . well, they are bliss, pure and utter bliss.
My father's family eats them mashed and stirred into whipped egg whites . . . I'm not sure what that is called, and I have never eaten it myself. I think it's a French Canadian thing . . . or maybe just a Villeneuve thing. I don't know for sure.
These Coconut Lime Glazed Banana Muffins are one of my favorite Banana Muffins. You get a lovely moist banana muffin . . . dense and filled with awesome banana flavour, vanilla and just a hint of lemon . . .
The muffin is then glazed while still warm with a tangy lime and coconut glaze icing. Just like a nice little snowy cap of Caribbean goodness.
These are pretty hard to resist. You can freeze them as well . . . without the topping. I expect that you could probably even freeze them with the glaze, but I never have so I couldn't say really for sure.
If you want even more Caribbean flavor, substitute rum flavoring for the vanilla. Or charge them up by adding some chopped toasted pecans or macadamia nuts. Now that sounds like a very moreish addition, don't you think??
*Coconut Lime Glazed Banana Muffins*
Makes 12
Printable Recipe
Moist and full of banana flavor these muffins on their own are pretty wonderful. When you add this delicious coconut lime glaze though, they go from being simply wonderful to full on moorish . . . they're almost too dangerous to have around!
1 1/2 cups flour (330g)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 large very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar (144g)
1 large egg, beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted (76g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
GLAZE:
The juice of one lime
1/2 cup sifted icing sugar (65g)
2 TBS flaked unsweetened coconut
Preheat the oven to 180*C/375*F/gas mark 4. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan really well (or line with paper liners) and set aside.
Whisk the flour, soda, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk together the bananas, sugar, egg, butter, vanilla and lemon extract. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and fold them together, mixing them together only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until they test done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Remove the pan to a wire rack to cool for ten minutes before removing the muffins from the pan. Place them back on the wire rack and spoon the glaze over them while still warm.
To make the glaze, stir all the glaze ingredients together until smooth.