the lowly banana...

I realized late last night that I haven't baked in quite some time... so I pulled out those overly ripe bananas that I keep in the freezer before I left for work this morning and came home excited to bake some... MUFFINS!!!! Some of my favourite memories of my childhood are of me coming home from school to the smell of my mother's oatmeal chocolate chip muffins. She'd bake dozens at a time, and with five kids - all of whom had a weakness for these muffins - they'd last all of a week (if we were lucky).

My inspiration for this recipe comes from that recipe. I decided to change certain things about it... including replacing chocolate chips with my homemade nutella :0) A dollop of that hazelnut chocolaty goodness in the centre of this muffin modernizes one of my all time favourite baked goods... hope you enjoy this as much as I will!

Oatmeal Banana Nutella Muffins
ingredients:
3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. oatbran
1/4 c. yellow cornmeal
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tbsp b. powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 c. buttermilk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 c. nutella

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners - it'll keep the muffins moist and makes for easy clean-up.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together - flour, oats, bran, cornmeal, sugar, b. powder and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, beat together the mashed bananas with the egg, buttermilk and vegetable oil.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir everything until just combined (your batter should be moist, but not over mixed).

Using a small ice cream scooper - scoop batter into the paper liners. Put a tsp of nutella on top of each scoop of batter. Now cover the nutella with another scoop of the muffin batter.

Bake in your oven for 18 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Not only does this batter make a dozen good sized muffins - but the smell of them baking will bring a smile to your face (and probably a rumbling tummy too)!