Usually my reaction to muffins is a giant eyeroll but also a thank you for making it okay to have dessert for breakfast, bless your soul amen.
For me a muffin is usually just a naked cupcake, which is less than, so in my food dictionary muffin equals cupcake with streusel. No streusel and you might as well ask me to stop yelling and leave because your children are in the house.
The only muffin that might be an exception to the rule of being a not dessert breakfast would be the banana muffin. I like to think of it as personal banana breads but when it’s a muffin there’s streusel so it’s a banana bread +1 and sometimes I eat hunks of banana bread for breakfast because it’s just sitting on the counter staring at me.
The combo of tahini and banana isn’t a new one, at all. There was this banana bread I saw a while ago in Bon Appetit, this beauty that Matt and Beau Created, this other beauty that Adrianna made, this masterpiece ice cream from Lily put it in a museum, and now this magic. The nutty tahini is banana’s best friend so naturally banana muffins say yas qween when tahini wants to hang then they both call the graham streusel for a kiki.
Yes graham streusel means it’s made from graham crackers, and it’s my new favorite streusel for muffins. When it’s combined with banana it has a banana pudding nilla wafer combo vibe that will make anyone happy that you made these for them, bless your soul amen.
Graham Streusel Tahini Banana Muffins
Makes 12
muffin adapted from this recipe
For the Streusel:
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs, from 3 graham crackers
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
For the Muffins:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled.
3 tablespoons tahini
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
3 large bananas
1 large egg
Preheat the oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
To make the streusel, combine everything except the butter in a medium bowl then add the butter and use your fingers to rub it all together until the butter’s full incorporated and the mixture is sort of like clumpy wet sand. Set aside.
In another medium bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Grab a large bowl and either add the melted butter or melt the butter in the microwave in the bowl. Add the tahini and whisk until smooth, then add the sugar and mix to combine. Peel and break up the bananas and add to the bowl then use a potato masher to mash up the bananas into the mix. Break them down most of the way, you don’t have to get rid of every single baby piece of banana, some texture is okay.
Whisk in the egg, then add the dry ingredients and fold the batter together just until the flour disappears, being careful not to overmix.
Scoop the batter into the prepared liners, I use 2 scoops of a medium cookie scoop so 3 tablespoons go in there, then top each muffin with about a tablespoon of streusel and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes then carefully transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Store leftover muffins in a tupperware container at room temp for up to 2 days.
