Bananas.

Both of these recipes are due to pregnancy cravings.  I crave different things everyday.  Sometimes it's chips and dip, sometimes its eggs, sometimes it's orange juice, or hash browns.  So random and different all the time.  Well today, the lucky food was bananas.  And I had some rotten ones.  What a coincidence.

What do you do with rotten bananas?  Usually you make banana bread.  Well banana bread sounded boring.  I wanted muffins and cinnamon rolls.  So that's what I made.  Both of them.

 These are roasted banana cinnamon rolls.  Delicious!

And these are the moistest, most delicious banana muffins ever.  They also have blueberries in them. Banana+blueberries=winning combo.

They both totally satisfied my banana cravings!  And Jeremy wasn't completely disgusted like he is sometimes when I eat a weird combination of things like hard boiled eggs, lime chips, and rice. 

The recipes...

Roasted Banana Cinnamon Rolls

For the Dough:
1/4-ounce package yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup scalded milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

For the filling:

3 ripe bananas cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

For the dough:
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture. Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Place in well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
When doubled in size, punch down dough. Roll out on a floured surface into a 15 by 9-inch rectangle.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Place banana slices and cut up pieces of butter into a small baking dish.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbly.  Remove and let cool for 10 minutes.  Next, use a fork to smash roasted bananas until well combined.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees F.  Spread with softened butter and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon onto the dough rectangle.  Place dollops of roasted banana mixture evenly over top.  Starting from long end, roll up into log shape.  Using a sharp knife, cut 1 inch slices and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until just turning golden brown.  Remove and let cool for 10 minutes.
Whisk powdered sugar and heavy cream until combined; drizzle over top of warm rolls.


Banana Blueberry Crumble Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup yogurt (I used honey flavored greek yogurt, but I'm sure any variety would be fine)
1/2 cup white sugar 
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar 
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375.  Lightly grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin cups.  

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.  Add yogurt. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Gently stir in blueberries. 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.


Enjoy!