• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed
• 1 cup walnuts (Note: Totally optional, but I can’t imagine banana anything without some crunchy walnuts).

1. Makes 18 Muffins (or do what I did and bake 12 muffins and spoon the rest of the batter into a loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes)
2. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.
3. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
4. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl to blend.
5. Beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl to blend.
6. Stir in the banana.
7. Add the dry ingredients and walnuts, and stir just until blended.
8. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out with no crumbs attached, about 25 minutes.
9. Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool slightly.
10. View step by step images of this recipe at my food blog ErinCooks.com

One of the really fabulous things about working for a college in Boston is that I get Snow Days! Obviously I had to take complete advantage of this luxurious and unexpected long weekend so I decided to make some muffins. I was also in desperate need of some cooking redemption as both recipes that I made this weekend turned out terribly, including a cheesecake that didn’t completely set-up and Ina Garten’s Parmesan Chicken that I totally burned. Oops! Apparently I had some bad kitchen karma going on. Thankfully my mixer mojo was back in force today. Banana Muffins (Based on Giada De Laurentiss’s recipe originally published on the Food Network)