Banana + Cream Cheese Muffins

I’m just going to lay it out there: These muffins are like having cheesecake for breakfast minus the guilt. Why no guilt? Because the bananas (fruit) negate the cream cheese (and sugar), making these muffins actually “healthy” for you! I play that kind of magical thinking game with food all the time. You know, the one where you focus on the healthiest part of whatever you’re eating — the part that might actually negate all potential health benefits if you really thought about it, which of course you’re not going to  — and that enables you to keep on eating as much as you want. Strawberry ice cream, for instance, has strawberries and calcium, which are good for you, so….ipso facto, strawberry ice cream is actually better for you than, say, Oreos (which, while they probably have no redeeming health benefit are decidedly still a required food group multiple times a year. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and the junk food that goes with it). Anyway these muffins are tasty and light, thanks to the whipping of the cream cheesey insides. Hope you enjoy them!

Banana Cream Cheese Muffins

makes one dozen

ingredients

for the filling:

8 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large egg whites, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

for the muffins:

1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup plus 6 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 large eggs, room temperature

3 ripe bananas, mashed

method

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Make the filling by beating the cream cheese and vanilla in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until smooth. Remove from the bowl and clean it out. Add the egg whites and beat/whisk on medium until frothy. Beat in the sugar on high until little peaks form. Add half the cream cheese and beat until just combined. Add the rest and beat until smooth. Transfer to a pastry bag or if you’re like me, a plastic quart size bag that you then cut a hole in the bottom corner when you’re ready to pipe out the cheese mixture. It works just as well. Here’s a picture of me with my homemade pastry piper.

To make the muffins beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and then the mashed banana until just combined. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and beat until just combined. Put half the batter in the muffin cups. Using your handy pastry piper, insert about a tablespoon or so into each muffin cup. Then top off with the rest of the batter.

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean (which you should stick in the cake part, not the filling obviously). This should be between 25 and 35 minutes. Let cool and then remove from the pan.