Muffins!

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the ladies that I work with – now that is 40 years with the company mind you – Yes I said 4-0!!! Can you even imagine?!?!? Anyway, in order celebrate her achievement we threw a surprise breakfast celebration for her – and then attacked her with silly string =) I brought in both banana crumb and blueberry muffins! Can you get any better than muffins? They are basically cupcakes that you are allowed to eat for breakfast – perfect!

Banana Crumb Muffins - recipe found on allrecipes.com
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted *I used 1/3 cup vegetable oil rather than the butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.
These were fantastic! Had a great banana flavor and the top was absolutely wonderful!!!!



To Die For Blueberry Muffins - also found on allrecipes.com
PREP TIME 15 Min COOK TIME 25 Min READY IN 40 Min

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar *see note below
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking. *Okay so I tried this mixture and it ended up paste – I am sure I did something wrong but I ended up tossing and using the mixture above for the banana muffins – worked wonderfully!
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

I was not a fan at of these at all! I actually tossed a few! They just didn't do it for me! The topping make them sink, the muffin wasn’t sweet enough *although that could be because I ran out of sugar and had to use some brown in place – ended up with 2/3 c white and a 1/3 brown*
Other than not being sweet enough the blue berries just didn’t seem like – not sure maybe there just weren’t enough of them but I thought I filled them all pretty well. I did still bring them into work for the breakfast and got 2 good reviews – they were all ate but I only asked 2 people their thoughts. Maybe it is just that you are always more critical of your own creation but I thought they sucked!