Banana Cardamom Muffins

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder in a medium bowl, set aside.

In a small bowl or mug, combine the milk and the lemon juice, set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugars. Add in eggs and mix well. Add in the bananas and using a potato masher, mash them into the mixture. If you don’t have a potato masher you can use a big fork or your clean hands—it is quite fun squishing bananas! Add in the milk mixture, stir well. Add in the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Spray a muffin pan well with nonstick spray and fill each cup a little over half with the mixture. Top each with a liberal sprinkling of the Chicago Sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. (The bigger your bananas the denser the muffins and the longer the cooking time. It all works out in the end.)

As soon as your muffins come out, loosen them from your pan and carefully get them out and cook on a cooling rack. I make muffins without liners; I just spray my pan, however feel free to line away.

Notes:
One of my favorite ingredients is a mix called Chicago Old Town Spiced Sugar from The Spice House. However, if you do not have that spice, you can easily make a sugar and cinnamon mix yourself (1/4 cups worth), add in cardamom to your liking and a splash of vanilla and you will be good to go! Ground the sugar together with your fingertips to spread out the vanilla into the sugar mixture.

Sometimes I kick these up a notch by sprinkling a layer of the Chicago Sugar in the middle of each muffin and sometimes I add chocolate chips as well. Nummy, num, num!

The smell while these are baking is ridiculous! If you are trying to sell your home, bake some of these babies just before folks come over for a look-see and they will fall in love! Hey, it worked for me!

If I only want 12 muffins, I put the excess batter in a small loaf pan and cook it alongside the muffins until it’s done, covering the top with the Chicago Sugar as well.

Enjoy!