This is one of those recipes that I’ve had in my “stack of recipes to try” for some time now, meaning to try it and just never getting around to it. But the good news is, I finally got around to it, and I’m glad I did–this is a really good muffin recipe! It’s from Midwest Living. I only tweaked a few tiny little things in the recipe, which I’ve noted below. The recipe makes 12 regular muffins or 6 jumbo muffins. The only thing the recipe was missing was the baking time for the jumbo muffins, but I just added about 8 minutes to the baking time for the regular-size muffins, and they turned out great! My friend Ann sampled one and said the caramel in the muffin was a nice touch–and added that you could almost call it a “Bananas Foster Muffin.” Isn’t that a great name for a muffin? It sounds so gourmet! 🙂 Whatever you call it, it’s good!

CARAMEL–BANANA MUFFINS by NancyC

Makes 12 regular or 6 jumbo muffins

• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 3-oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 medium banana, peeled and mashed (1/2 cup) NOTE: I just had some small bananas, so I used 1 1/2 small ones which came to almost 2/3 of a cup, mashed.
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. caramel-flavored ice cream topping
• 1 medium banana, peeled and thinly sliced (if you’re making the 6 jumbo muffins, 1/2 banana will be enough)
• 1 Tbsp. butter, melted
• Caramel-flavored ice cream topping for drizzle

Line 12 regular-size or 6 jumbo-size muffin cups with paper liners. In a small bowl, mix pecans, 2 Tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, blend softened cream cheese, softened butter and 2/3 cup sugar until well combined. Add egg and mix well. Add in the mashed banana and vanilla until combined.

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the banana mixture and blend well, but don’t overmix. Then stir 1/4 cup of the pecan mixture from the small bowl into the batter.

Spoon half the batter into prepared muffin cups (1 rounded Tbsp. for each regular muffin cup or 2 rounded Tbsp. for each jumbo muffin cup). Drizzle 1/2 tsp. caramel topping over batter in each cup (you can drizzle a little more if you’re making the jumbo muffins). Top with remaining batter. Then top each muffin with 2 thin banana slices. Drizzle each with a little melted butter and sprinkle with remaining pecan mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes for regular muffins, or 25-28 minutes for jumbo muffins, or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan. If you want to eat the muffins while they’re warm, drizzle with more caramel topping and serve. If you’ll be serving the muffins later, you can let them cool completely and then add the caramel topping; that way the topping won’t all soak into the muffin. They taste good either way!

Linked to Cupcake Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!