Matcha Brown Butter Banana Muffins
Before calligraphy, baking used to be my “thing”. It’s taken a back seat for quite some time now - I even packed up my stand mixer earlier this year to free up space on my kitchen counter for an air fryer. But, seeing as we'll be staying home for a while longer, I decided it was time to switch things up and put on my baker’s hat again.
Unsurprisingly, it’s with yet another matcha recipe. I honestly didn’t plan this - I’ve just been baking to use up expiring fruits and my first inclination is always to add matcha to it.
The fact that these muffins have matcha and bananas makes them kind of healthy, right? We’ll just ignore the fact that there’s a stick of butter in them…they’re perfect for breakfast or a snack, served with your favorite tea (more matcha, anyone?)!
Matcha Brown Butter Banana Muffins
When you have browning bananas, naturally you make banana bread/muffins. Being matcha-obsessed, I decided to experiment by adding a barista-grade matcha [affiliate] - culinary grade also works, the color just won’t be as bright. And you can never go wrong with browned butter - feel free to skip this step and just use melted butter instead. Don’t like matcha? Leave it out and throw in some chocolate chips / swirl with peanut butter/nutella before popping into the oven!
I opted for muffins over a loaf for a quicker bake time, but also because I no longer have a loaf pan. Feel free to bake in a 9-inch loaf pan for 40-45 minutes.
Yield: 12 muffins
Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon matcha powder (1/2 tbsp if you don’t prefer a strong matcha flavor) - I used Jade Leaf Matcha’s “barista” grade
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup (133 g) sugar
8 tablespoons (112 g) browned butter, cooled
2 eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup (150 g) buttermilk or sour milk (yogurt also works)
2 1/2 medium (220 g) ripe bananas, mashed
Optional: 12 thin slices of banana to place on top of each muffin
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan and set aside.
To make brown butter: Melt butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Swirl butter around pan to cook evenly. Melted butter will foam, then turn a light brown - keep cooking and swirling pan until the color of the butter turns a dark golden brown and specks form at the bottom of the pan. Take off heat and set aside or pour in heat-proof bowl to cool.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, matcha powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda and sugar.
In a medium bowl, stir in browned butter, eggs, vanilla and mix well. Then add buttermilk, mixing until well-combined. Fold in bananas until incorporated.
Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups filling them almost full, the muffins won't rise much. If using, place banana slices on top of each muffin - slightly pressing them into the batter.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, enjoy warm or cool completely - the matcha flavor will be more pronounced when cooled.
Recipe adapted from a gluten-free banana bread made during my baking/blogger days.