Blueberry Preserve-Stuffed Banana Muffins

Imagine for a second that you have a banana muffin and it’s stuffed with what can really only be described as blueberry pie filling.

It’s happening. Right here, right now, in this post.

I used this super-cool gadget that let me bake the muffins with a hole in them, so I could fill them with blueberry-goopy-goodness without having to core a hole out in the muffins myself, after they had baked. (Which means that you end up with a clean, neat hole- not a jagged one even if you try really hard with the knife to make the circle look neat… you just can’t do it, trust me. So go buy the muffin meal gadget and stop complaining about your crumby muffin holes, alright?)

I chose to make this recipe with my uber-healthy banana bread recipe as the muffin, to slightly offset the guilt of eating an entire glop of blueberry goo with each serving. It’s the balancing act of sweets-eating… you know, you eat 6 pieces of Decadent Deep-Dish Pecan Pie for lunch, and then you eat veggies for dinner. And all is well.

Adapted from my Impossibly Healthy Banana Bread recipe…

BANANA MUFFINS:

4 very ripe bananas, well mashed

2 eggs plus 1 egg white, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cups sugar (or Sucanat if you’re feeling like being totally natural)

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

BLUEBERRY PRESERVE FILLING:

4 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1 tablespoon lemon zest

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1. MUFFINS:
  1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease 12 liners placed into a muffin pan. (If using the cool muffin meal gadgets, follow easy directions in the packaging to basically bake the muffins with built-in indents for the gooey filling.)
  2. Mix mashed bananas with eggs and vanilla, and then stir in flour, Sucanat/sugar, flax seeds, salt and baking soda until just combined. Pour batter in prepared pans.
  3. Bake for 20 minutes (until cake tester or wooden skewer comes out mostly clean). Set on cooling racks for 5 – 10 minutes, then remove from pans to finish cooling.
2. PRESERVES:
  1. In a large saucepan, mash half of the blueberries with a fork or potato masher. Stir in rest of ingredients, including rest of the whole blueberries.
  2. Over medium heat, stir blueberry mixture every few minutes until sauce is thickened (about 20 minutes).
  3. Allow to cool and scoop into cored-out muffins.
Tips:
- Prefer a richer (um, buttery) banana bread recipe instead of this healthy one? I highly recommend this one: Banana Nut Bread. Skip or keep the nuts in, your call.
- No flax seeds? No worries. Use chia seeds, or skip.
- You will have extra blueberry filling, so you can either freeze it or eat it up in the moment. (The moment beckons. This moment.)
- Want to use the blueberry goo for something else? I’d serve alongside Classic Shortbread Cookies, or pour over Angel Food Cake, or just eat on it’s own, to be totally honest. Ooh- it would also be good on top of Lemon Curd.
- These can be frozen, but not for too long… thaw in the fridge and eat at room temperature.
- Enjoy!
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October 1st, 2014 | More Sweets Please | 2 Comments | Tags: Bananas, Fruit

2 Responses and Counting...

Alonzo Walker 10.01.2014

The blog post was great. You should taste the German Chocolate Cake Muffin Meal. It’s delectable!!!
More Sweets Please

Oooh- great idea to stuff the coconut-nut-goo filling in a German Chocolate cupcake. I’m so going to do that. !!!