Introduction: Pineapple/ Banana/ Sunflower Seed Cupcakes

About: Lets get cooking..
Living in New Orleans can be very interesting when it comes to cuisine choices.

Due to recent  high winds from Hurricane Issac many banana trees were blown down before their fruit had a chance to fully ripen. A quick drive around the neighborhood produced several stalks of bananas free for the taking. These stalks can weigh upwards of 30-50 lbs -- now that's a whole lot of bananas!

 What to do with that many bananas before they go bad?

1. My favorite use of the green ones is to make french fries.These can be frozen for future use. When cooked the taste is indistinguishable from potato fries.

2. The firm ripe bananas are used for drying into banana chips.

3. The soft ripe bananas are mashed for banana nut muffins.  

These muffins use the mashed and dried chips to make a delicious and sweet treat for the family. These muffins are naturally sweet so icing is not necessary.

 We have created Instructables  for all three different uses of bananas.

Step 1: Ingredients Needed:

 5-8 very ripe bananas peeled =  2-3/4 cups of mashed.

3/4 cup of dry roasted, unsalted shelled Sunflower seeds.

1/2 cup of pineapple tidbits (chunks cut into very small pieces).

 Aprox.1/4 cup of dried banana chips (optional for decoration).

 2 cups of all purpose flour.

 1 cup of brown sugar.

 2 room temperature large eggs - beaten.

 1/2 cup (one stick) of softened butter/margarine.

 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

1/4 teaspoon salt.

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Yield: approx. 18 full-size or 36 mini muffins

Step 2: Putting Them Together:

In a large mixing bowl add together the dry ingredients together and mix well:

  2 cups of all purpose flour

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  2 teaspoons baking powder

  1/4 teaspoon salt

  1 cup of brown sugar

  3/4 cups of dry roasted-non salted shelled sunflower seeds

In a separate bowl add together and mix the wet ingredients:

   2-3/4 cups of mashed ripe bananas

   1/2 cup of well softened butter (1 stick) or margarine

    2 large eggs beaten

   1/2 cup of pineapple tidbits

   1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

Combine the wet to dry ingredients and mix well -  the muffin batter is now ready to use.






Step 3: Cooking:

Pre-heat oven to 400°F.

Scoop batter 3/4 full into greased muffin pan.

Place muffin tin into oven, set timer for 20-25 minutes (depending on how your oven cooks).

At 10 minutes rotate muffin pan to ensure even cooking. At this time add 2 dried banana chips to the top of muffins - if desired.

Muffins are ready when they are a golden color and a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes, remove from muffin pan.



Step 4: Eat and Enjoy

We like to take these out on picnics; they are so sweet and tasty by themselves that you don't need any messy icing to enjoy them.

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