Gator Breakfast Adventure

Several week's ago I was honored with a request from Lorraine, my most enthusiastic cookie fan, to cater a breakfast meeting for my Alma mater - University of Florida. I was intrigued with the prospect of finding a healthy breakfast cookie and some really tasty muffin recipes. After a week of "research and development" and a couple of flops, I ended up with three recipes. Since tonight I am functioning on 2 1/2 hours of sleep, I will post my favorite of the three and follow up this weekend with the rest. Thanks Lorraine for believing in me. I had a blast!

Banana Muffins with Mascarpone Cream Frosting

Muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 ground nutmeg
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed

Frosting:
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese, room temperature
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

1. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. Preheat oven to 325 F.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir in the mashed banana. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just blended.

3. Divide the batter amoung the prepared muffin cups. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean with no crumbs attached...about 25 minutes (my oven took 28 minutes). Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool slightly. The muffins are amazing warm without the frosting, but even better topped with the creamy sweet mascapone confection.

4. To frost the muffins: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the mascarpone cheese and follow with the honey. Spread the frosting over the muffins and sprinkle with the toasted walnuts.

Tip: I used (2) 12 cup muffin pans and yielded 24 muffins. They did not have large puffy tops, but were plenty big enough for me. To frost 12 muffins, I doubled the frosting recipe...would probably need to triple it to frost all 24. My brother suggested I try adding mini chocolate chips to this recipe. Mmmmmm, sounds good. Maybe next week...

Enjoy!

Many hugs,

Kathy