Tropical Muffins

Recently I was leafing through one of those fundraising cookbooks with recipes contributed from various people. You know the kind. Then I stumbled across a fun variation of banana bread. After tweaking it to reduce the sugar by half, using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, and dropping some ingredients, we now have a banana pineapple coconut muffin that has everyone going back for more. You might try adding some shredded, unsweetened coconut for some additional crunch.

 

Tropical Banana Muffins

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup cane sugar (or less)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup coconut oil, softened
• 1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained and blotted dry (save the juice for other uses!)
• 2 cups (about 3 - 4) mashed ripe bananas
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare muffin tin with papers. (If you have a non-stick muffin tin, you can probably get away with not using anything and putting the batter directly in the forms. The coconut oil does a fair job of greasing the tin on its own.)
2. Mix together in a large mixing bowl the flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon. Make a fist in the center.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together until smooth the mashed bananas, sugar, eggs, and coconut oil. Add the crushed pineapple and vanilla.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Mix together with a rubber spatula until combined.
5. Working with a tablespoon and teaspoon, fill the muffin cups. Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean, rotating the muffin tin halfway through the baking time.

Before you get started, make sure to drain the pineapple; keep the juice for smoothies (or mixed drinks?).

Use a rubber spatula to mix ingredients until just combined but still lumpy.