Sunday Supper: Banana Nut Muffins

Here is a truth about back-to-school season that nobody puts on the supply list: The mornings get harder before they get easier. The first week or two, everyone is running on fresh energy and new routines. By week three, the alarm goes off, and somehow 15 minutes have disappeared between the bed and the kitchen, and there is nothing obvious to grab on the way out the door.

This is exactly the problem that a batch of banana nut muffins, baked on a Sunday afternoon, solves without any drama. They are sitting on the counter Monday morning. They are still there on Tuesday. They freeze beautifully for the week beyond that. A muffin grabbed in 30 seconds on the way to the car is a real breakfast, not a compromise, and a banana nut muffin in particular has enough substance to carry a kid through a morning of school or an adult through the first half of a workday without anyone running on fumes by 10 o'clock.

The recipe takes 10 minutes to put together and 20 minutes in the oven. That is less time than it takes to decide what to watch while it bakes. If there are bananas on the counter that have gone a little too far past their prime for eating out of hand, this is exactly what they were waiting for.

The Case for the Overripe Banana

A banana that is too soft and too sweet to eat as a snack is, counterintuitively, the perfect baking banana. The ripening process converts the banana's starches into sugars, which means an overripe banana is more flavorful, sweeter, and moister than a firm yellow one. The brown spots are not a problem. They are the whole point.

The best banana for this recipe is deeply speckled, soft enough to mash easily with a fork, and intensely fragrant rather than faintly scented. Three of them mashed together should produce a loose, almost pourable puree that stirs into the batter without any lumps. If the bananas available are only lightly freckled and still fairly firm, they will still work, but the muffins will be less sweet and less tender than the ideal version. It is worth waiting a few extra days if the bananas on the counter are not quite there yet.

A quick shortcut for anyone who cannot wait: Lay unpeeled bananas on a sheet pan and roast them at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the skins turn completely black. Let them cool, then split the skins and scoop out the soft, intensely sweet banana inside. It is not quite the same as a naturally overripe banana, but it gets close and works well when the bananas on the counter are stubbornly yellow.

What the Walnuts Are Doing

The walnuts in a banana nut muffin are not just texture. They add a slightly bitter, earthy note that balances the sweetness of the banana and brown sugar, and they give each bite something to work against so the muffin does not collapse into pure softness. A muffin without the nuts is pleasant. A muffin with them is complete.

Chop the walnuts into pieces roughly the size of a pencil eraser. Too fine, and they disappear into the batter without contributing much texture. Too large, and they become awkward to bite through in a muffin that is otherwise soft. Reserving a handful to press into the tops of the muffins before baking adds a toasted crunch to the surface that makes the finished muffin look and taste considerably more intentional.

Pecans work just as well for anyone who prefers them, and they lean slightly sweeter and more buttery, whereas walnuts are earthier. Either is correct. Plain banana muffins without any nuts at all are the right call for a school lunchbox going to a nut-free classroom, and the recipe holds up well without them.

Banana Nut Muffins

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Bake time: 18 to 20 minutes
• Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped, plus extra to top muffins before baking, if desired

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a standard 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Add the mashed bananas, melted butter, and milk to a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine.

Beat in the egg, vanilla, and brown sugar until well incorporated.

Add the granulated sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda. Fold until just combined; do not overmix. A few streaks of flour remaining in the batter are fine. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

Fill each muffin cup about four-fifths full. Press a few extra walnut pieces into the top of each muffin before baking, if desired.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

The Sunday Bake That Carries the Week

One batch of 12 muffins goes further than it sounds. Two muffins make a real breakfast for most people. One muffin alongside a piece of fruit and something to drink covers a child's morning without anyone having to cook anything at 7 a.m. Pulled from a basket on the counter, they require exactly the effort it takes to grab one and go, which is the whole point during a week when the mornings are already asking a lot of everybody.

Stored at room temperature in an airtight container, the muffins stay fresh for three to four days. After that, the refrigerator extends their life by a few more days, though refrigerated muffins benefit from 30 seconds in the microwave before eating to bring them back to their original texture. A muffin that has been refrigerated and eaten cold is a lesser experience than it could be.

For longer storage, freeze them. Let the muffins cool completely, then wrap each one individually in plastic wrap and place them in a freezer bag. They keep for up to three months and thaw at room temperature in about an hour, or they can be microwaved from frozen in about 45 seconds. A freezer with a dozen banana nut muffins in it is a genuine asset in a busy household, and a batch doubled on a Sunday afternoon means the freezer stays stocked for weeks without any additional effort.

A Few More Ways to Use Them

A banana nut muffin at breakfast is the obvious application, but it is not the only one. A muffin in a lunchbox, wrapped in plastic wrap, travels well and holds up better than most baked goods by midday. A muffin alongside a cup of coffee or tea in the afternoon is a better answer to a 3 o'clock energy dip than most of what lives in a vending machine. Sliced in half and warmed in a skillet with a little butter, a day-old muffin becomes something closer to banana bread toast and is worth trying at least once.

Baking something on Sunday for the week ahead is one of the oldest and most practical expressions of what this column is actually about. The Sunday table feeds more than one meal. A batch of banana nut muffins baked at 2 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon is still doing its job on Thursday morning, and that kind of planning ahead — quiet, unglamorous, and entirely useful — is as much a part of Sunday supper as anything that lands on the table at 6 o'clock.