Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffin
Makes 12 muffins

My friend Jason gave me a quart bag full of shelled pecans from his parents' Pecan trees last month. So these past few weeks, I have been mulling over what I should do with them. Too many weeks and 1/2-of-the-bag gone -- Bill started snacking on them, and I started adding them to my Greek Yogurt in the morning (which by the way is great with honey, dates and pecans) -- I finally settled on making it with my favorite muffin, inspired by the overripe bananas in my counter (yet again)! This is my favorite recipe for banana nut muffin, and actually, it's the ONLY banana nut muffin that comes out of my kitchen.

Ingredient

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 stick butter
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 overripe bananas, mashed
1 ripe banana, diced
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin pans with Wilton Bake Easy (a product I totally recommend), set aside. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat together the sugar, and butter until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and mashed bananas and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients, then fold in the nuts and diced bananas. Scoop and distribute evenly in the muffin pan. Bake for 22 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.