Banana Muffins

These muffins are based on my mother's old Banana Bread recipe, with a couple of very minor alterations. (I have to say that because my mother will point it out when she reads this).

2 Cups Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Sour Milk* or Buttermilk
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large or 3 small Bananas, mashed (you want to end up with about 1 Cup mashed banana)

Optional: 1/2 Cup nuts (walnuts work well for this)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line the muffin tins with cupcake papers (or spray with non-stick spray)

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until fluffy. Add the eggs and mix in. Add the buttermilk (or sour milk) and vanilla. Add the mashed bananas last (and nuts if using), stirring them in by hand until well-mixed.

Drop into the muffin cups (I use an ice-cream scoop) filling each cup only about halfway.

Bake for 20-24 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently poked with a finger.

*Sour Milk - Sour milk is often found in old recipes and can be used in place of buttermilk. To make sour milk, use 1 tablespoon of white vinegar for each cup of sour milk needed. Just pour the vinegar into a measuring cup, add the milk, then stir and let sit five minutes. It will sour and slightly thicken the milk. For this recipe I used slightly less than 1 teaspoon of vinegar to make the 1/4 cup sour milk required.