Bananas are one of those foods that hardly anyone dislikes. They’re sweet and mushy, one of the friendliest textures ever. But the truly great thing about bananas is that when you mix them with butter, flour and eggs and then bake them to produce banana bread, no one, not even that one person who claims to hate bananas, will refuse to eat them. So I took my go-to banana bread recipe, which I found eons ago on Deb’s Smitten Kitchen (yet another great recipe from her!) and turned it into muffins. But wait, I thought, it’s not enough to have delicious bites of banana bread. I should definitely add coconut flakes, because they’re so crispy…. and bananas and coconuts together make me think of monkeys and palm trees and caribbean islands. Which of course makes me think of pirates…and well from pirates to rum it’s only one small jump right? So why not add a small splash of rum…or maybe a not so small one?  So I did all of those things, and the result is an insanely delicious breakfast muffin, which packs a whole punch because of all the flavors, and because it’ll make you think of Jack sparrow. (And who doesn’t love thinking about Jack sparrow right?).Ok, ok..I’ll stop rambling about all the crazy things I think about when presented with coconut flakes and jut tell you to read more for the recipe.

Banana rum coconut muffins
(Recipe adapted from the awesome Deb at Smitten Kitchen)

For the crumble:
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup butter, cold and cut into small cubes
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup coconut flakes

4 large ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tbsp dark rum
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour

Make the crumble by mixing the flour, butter and sugar in a bowl and rubbing it between your hands, pressing the butter into the flour and sugar until you get a crumbly, sand like texture. You should be able to grab a fistful, press it together into a ball, and then crumble it softly. Add the coconut flakes and mix.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Prepare your cupcake tins with liners.

Mix the all the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Mix the mashed bananas with the butter, then add the sugar, vanilla, rum and egg.
Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Place spoonfuls in your cupcake lines until 2/3 full. Top each with a generous amount of the crumble you prepared earlier.

Bake until golden brown, the set on a wire rack to cool.
Enjoy slightly warm 🙂