Brown Sugar Banana-Clementine Muffins

With chunks of sweet banana and lots of fresh clementine zest, these delicious, crumb topped muffins are sure to please!

"How would you like to learn a little trick to wake Papa up - without making a single sound?", I asked my two older granddaughters several years ago. Scott had gone upstairs to take a Sunday afternoon nap and it was getting close to dinner time.

The girls look at me quizzically.

"Can you be quiet as little mice?", I asked. They nodded sincerely. "And do this without making a single peep?". They shook their heads up and down, affirmatively, with wide eyes.

"Okay, this is how it works.", I said as I knelt down to their eye level and pulled two hairs from my head. I placed them carefully between their little fingers. "You have to, completely silently, open the bedroom door. Think you can do that?".

"Oh yes!" was their response; they were hooked.

"Then, you sneak in the bedroom on your very quietest tippy toes and stealthly make your way over to the bed where Papa's sleeping. If he snores a little, don't let that scare you, that's just what Papa's do. Okay, got it so far?".

"Yup, we got it Grammy. But then what?"

"Oh, that's the super simple part. You just take the little hairs and brush them across papa's nose. At first, he'll just swipe at his nose, thinking in his sleepiness, that perhaps there's a fly or a mosquito in the room. But do it a few more times and next thing you know, he'll be awake. And when he sees you two, he'll start laughing. Think you can pull it off?"

They were on their way up the stairs before I even finished my sentence.

They discovered that day how perfectly this little trick works! And these days, whenever anyone's taking a nap at our house the girlies quite frequently ask me "Grammy, could you give us a hair? "

Perhaps your family members might not be as good natured as "Papa" or wouldn't relish a hair on their nose. You probably don't like the thought of pulling out hair either.

The perfect way to get guests out of bed in the morning...

Well, do I have another trick for you! And, to be honest, Scott likes this one much better.

Just put together a batch of these Brown Sugar Banana Clementine Muffins. That's all it takes; whether it's early morning or midday, the heavenly aroma of brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and cloves that will waft through your entire house will be enough to pull even the sleepiest heads out of bed.

I bought a big bag of clementines several weeks ago for my Kale and Clementine Salad. We enjoyed some that were left over for snacking and also on our breakfast yogurt. There only were a few remaining when an idea for muffins with clementines and bananas started rolling around in my head the other day.

The problem was that I tried four times (one recipe was too dry, one too wet, another too flat) before I got the muffins just right, which meant that I had to go back and buy more clementines. Another huge bag.

So now I've got clementines everywhere you look! You know what that means, right? Yup, there just might be another clementine recipe coming up soon...

So don't worry when you see that big bag of clementines at the market (they don't seem to come in small quantities.). Throw one in your cart and check out a few of our clementine recipes, there's cake, salad, salad dressing, marmalade, even soup! And instead of setting an alarm for your family or house guests next weekend, just whip up a batch of these delicious, Brown Sugar Banana-Clementine Muffins. I'm quite certain they'll be happy you didn't use the "other trick" to get them out of bed.

5 from 6 votes

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Brown Sugar Banana-Clementine Muffins

With chunks of sweet banana and lots of fresh clementine zest, these delicious, crumb topped muffins are sure to please everyone in the family!

Author: Chris Scheuer

Course: Adapted (a lot) by Chris Scheuer from [url href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-BetterBaking-com-Classic-Recipes/dp/1580083749" title="The Best of Better Baking"]The Best of Better Baking [/url]

Cuisine: Breakfast, Brunch

Keyword: Banana Clementine Muffins

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 40 mins

Servings: 18

Ingredients

• Ingredients for the topping:
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon cloves
• ¼ teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter
• 5 tablespoons butter melted
• Ingredients for the muffins:
• 2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons clementine zest
• ½ cup canola or other mild flavored oil
• 1 ⅓ cups packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large banana not overly ripe, diced into ¼ inch pieces
• Ingredients for the glaze:
• 1 ¼ cup confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons clementine juice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400˚F. Line 18 standard size muffin cups with paper liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. For the crumb topping, combine sugars, flour, spices and salt in a medium size bowl. Stir well to combine then slowly drizzle in butter while stirring with a fork. Keep stirring after all butter is added till mixture gets crumbly and all dry ingredients are incorporated.
3. For the muffins, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and clementine zest in a medium size bowl. Stir and set aside.
4. Combine oil, brown sugar and egg in another medium size bowl. Stir till combined then add buttermilk and vanilla and stir again.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour buttermilk mixture into the well and stir just until there are no longer any traces of flour. Add the bananas and gently stir.
6. Divide mixture between the 18 prepared muffin cups. Place a heaping tablespoon of the crumbs on top of each, dividing the crumbs equally and mounding them up slightly in the center.
7. Place in oven and immediately reduce temperature to 350˚F. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.
9. To make the glaze, combine confectioners’ sugar and clementine juice. Whisk with a fork until smooth. If the glaze is too thin, add more confectioners’ sugar as needed. Drizzle muffins with the glaze while warm. Glaze will set within 15-20 minutes.