Where do banaberries come from, you may ask?  Well *pats seat* come here and sit down.  We should talk.

You see, when a banana and a blueberry love each other very much, they go out on a date.  Sometimes drinking is involved and they end up doing some things they don’t remember in the morning, which is probably for the best as it’s most likely somewhat uncomfortable and disgusting.  Banana sneaks out in the morning to avoid awkward conversation.  And shortly later the fruit of their love is born: the banaberry.

Or…

In coming up with a more succinct name for these muffins I baked yesterday, I shortened the original lengthy moniker of “Banana Blueberry Muffins with Walnut Streusel” by combining the terms “Banana” and “Blueberry” into “Banaberry.”  But that’s hardly romantic now, is it?

Anyway, so I was home all day yesterday.  It was a planned day off to wait for FedEx to drop off my new iPhone (yes, I’m one of those).  What was not planned was that FedEx dropped it off a day early on Tuesday.  But hey, I’d already taken the day off.  Might as well be productive and bake something delicious.

Three somethings, actually.  I made a couple batches of les petits pains au chocolat for Josh, some more cornbread (sans the prosciutto this time) for both of us (but mostly me, really) and a batch of these rather lovely little muffins, which I took to work.

Now, I don’t make muffins usually.  Josh does it.  He makes very tasty little blueberry muffins with a recipe from Alton Brown, I believe.  I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out when I took a basic muffin recipe off AllRecipes.com and tweaked it to fit my liking but it turned out pretty good!  I are so smrt.  S-m-r-t!  But anyway, yeah, good fruity flavor, nice crumb, excellent texture from the streusel topping.  My coworker Chase proclaimed them, “Pretty awesome.”  So there, you see?  If you ever need to make muffins for Chase, these have his approval.  Not bad day’s work for a day off from work. 

Banaberry Streusel Muffins
Makes 12

For the muffins:
1.5 c. unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1/3 c. mik
2 bananas, unpeeled
1 heaping cup fresh or frozen blueberries

For the streusel:
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 c.  butter, softened
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon
1/4 c. walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 400F.  Place bananas, unpeeled, on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the peels are blackened and the flesh is soft.  Let cool.

Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, vanilla, egg and milk until just combined.  Slit bananas open and scoop flesh into the batter, mixing thoroughly.  Carefully fold in blueberries.  Let batter sit while you put together the streusel.

Put sugar, flour, pumpkin pie spice and walnuts in a medium bowl and cut together until a crumbly mixture forms, making sure the butter is well dispersed.

Prep a 12-cup muffin tin with baking spray, or line with muffin liners.  Use an ice cream scoop to spoon out the muffin batter into each cup.  Sprinkle streusel mixture evenly over the muffins.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until done.

Eat!