Bakery Style Banana Muffins

I have already made banana muffins, but those were simple ones from a generic box recipe (kind of).  These are much more fun and ever-so delicious.  Nutmeg and cinnamon lend a bakery taste to the muffins that just isn't found in simpler recipes, not to mention that even though they're homemade they are amazingly easy.  Top it off with butter and roll it in cinnamon and sugar and you have banana muffins made to perfection.

Ingredients

For Muffins:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ripe banana, mashed

1/2 cup milk

For Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

Instructions

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium sized bowl.  It's easy to use a whisk to ensure even distribution but not necessary.

2. If you haven't already, mash the banana in a small bowl.  Don't bother getting out a large bowl for this, just mash it in a small bowl, even one that you'd eat from.

3. Combine the oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, milk, and banana and mix until smooth.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ones gradually. Its a very thick mixture so I would recommend a rubber spatula or wooden spoon at this point.

5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray mini or regular sized muffin pans with baking spray.

6. Fill muffin cups three fourths full, if you make mini muffins it should make about 24 to 30, with a regular sized muffin tin I was able to make ten.

7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, my regular sized ones took about 15 minutes total.

8.  While the muffins bake, melt the butter in a small-ish bowl and combine the sugar and cinnamon on a medium to small plate.  When making mini muffins, you can halve the cinnamon and sugar so that you don't waste near as much.

9.  After the muffins have cooled just a tad, dip the tops in the butter then roll the muffins in the cinnamon and sugar.

Notes:

~ Instead of using the typical baking oil, I used grape seed oil.  It's a much healthier choice when compared to the standard cooking oil and has little effect on the taste overall.  If anything, the muffins tasted better.  I also like this oil because it's a cool shade of olive-y green, so there's that.

~ It's helpful to run a butter knife around the muffins while they're cooling to make it easier to get them out of the pan.

Enjoy!