Banana Rum Yogurt Muffins with Blueberry Compound Butter

This time last year, banana bread was all the rage. I made seven loaves over the course of the same number of weeks, and then I kind of burned out on banana baked goods. These banana yogurt muffins with rum and blueberry butter brought me back, and now I’m planning my whole baking schedule around ripening bananas.

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I have this thing for really fluffy muffins, and the crumb on these is just so wonderfully light and delicate. That’s the greek yogurt, adding an extra level of moisture on top of what baking with bananas already provides. They are kind of like a banana cloud, with rum added, of course.

And there’s the blueberry butter. I went back and forth between a few options on how to incorporate the fresh berries I had in my fridge into these muffins. But one taste of this sweet and colorful butter confirmed that I made the right decision.

What You Need to Get Started

You can easily find all of the ingredients for these banana yogurt muffins with blueberry butter at your grocery store:

• Fridge: Butter, Greek yogurt,
• Produce: Blueberries, Bananas, Egg
• Pantry: Sugar, Brown sugar, Vegetable oil, Flour, Cornstarch, Baking soda
• Spice Rack: Sea salt, Salt
• From the Bar: Dark rum (like Bacardi Black)
• Equipment: Mixing bowls, Whisk, Plastic wrap, Foil, Muffin pan, Cooling rack

How to Make Blueberry Compound Butter

You will want to start with super extra soft butter to make this process easier on you. It should be just on the border of melted, but without actually being liquid. I like to start with room temperature butter, and then microwave it in five second increments. As soon as I start seeing a single sign of melting, that’s when it’s perfectly soft.

Then whisk it up so the butter fluffs slightly and loses its shape. This will also help you make sure that the middle is the right consistency as well. Add in the blueberries, sugar, and salt. If you prefer, you can start with salted butter and omit the salt, but I like to control the amount for better flavor.

Stir everything together (switch from the whisk to a spoon) smashing the berries against the sides and bottom of the bowl so they pop and release their juices. Keep going for a couple minutes, until most of the berries are smashed and the butter has turned slightly pink.

Lay a sheet of plastic wrap flat on a work surface, and place the butter on top of it. Then use the spoon and the plastic to shape the butter into a log that is about one or two inches in diameter. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap and folder them over the log of butter to seal it in. Then wrap the whole thing in aluminum foil and chill.

You can either freeze the butter for an hour, or refrigerate it for at least four. If you do freeze it for longer, be sure to move it to the fridge or countertop a bit before serving, so it has time to thaw. Cooling the butter will allow it to form back into its solid state, but this time filled with yummy blueberries.

Before serving this butter, cut quarter- to half-inch slices off the cold log and let them sit at room temperature for at least ten minutes to soften. That way you’ll be able to easily spread the butter onto your muffins.

Let’s Make Banana Yogurt Muffins

While I suggest starting with the butter so it has time to chill while you bake the muffins, it really doesn’t matter too much for this recipe. The muffins will also need their own time to cool. Plus, they can both be made days in advance.

To get started on the muffins, preheat your oven and double check that there is a rack in the center. Then either grease a standard muffin pan or line it with paper liners. This recipe makes a dozen muffins in a regular-sized pan.

Be sure you are working with very ripe bananas. I like mine to be at least one or two days past when I would eat them as a snack. They should be, at a minimum, covered in dark brown spots, preferably starting to turn black in places.

Add the bananas to a large mixing bowl with the yogurt, oil, egg, rum, and brown sugar. Between all of these super moist ingredients, these muffins get so fluffy and dreamy. The greek yogurt especially helps with that by reacting with baking soda, and providing a little tang. The brown sugar also adds an extra depth of flavor and accents the rum.

If you prefer to make an alcohol-free version, you can replace the rum by stirring a teaspoon of vanilla or rum extract into water to total two tablespoons of liquid. But keep in mind that if you do this, the flavor won’t be exactly the same. Even rum extract doesn’t quite taste exactly like rum.

Grab your potato masher (or pastry blender, or large fork) and get to smashing those bananas. Work in everything else as well, letting it all combine together. The mixture should be fairly liquidy in the end, but it’s totally fine if there are a few small chunks of banana throughout. Just be sure to break up any brown sugar clumps.

In a separate, smaller mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Cornstarch is one of my favorite ingredients to add when baking something like muffins. It helps with the texture or crumb, making these muffins tender and soft.

Whisk everything together until it’s combined, and then add the dry ingredients into the bowl with the banana mixture. Fold these together by scraping the edges and bottom of the bowl to surround the flour mixture with the wet ingredients until it forms a batter.

To not overmix, only do this until everything is just combined and you are no longer seeing any large streaks of flour as you fold. Overmixing can cause the proteins in flour to begin forming, which can make your muffins tough instead of light. The folding motion will also help stop you from overmixing.

Now grab your prepared muffin pan, and begin filling the cups with batter. You want each to be about three-quarters of the way full, which is generally about a third of a cup of batter. You can use an ice cream scoop or large cookie scoop to make it easier to fill these, but make sure that you scrape out every last bit of batter from the bowl!

Bake for right around twenty-two minutes. Most ovens don’t cook evenly, so it can be a good idea to rotate the pan halfway through the cooking process. Then, remove the pan from the oven and check to see if the muffins are done.

There a couple of ways to confirm these are ready, and I like to use all three. First, look at the color, which should be golden brown on the tops of the muffins. Then, gently press the top of one, and it should bounce back to its original shape. Finally, a toothpick inserted into the center of each will come out clean.

Let the muffins cool in the pan for about five minutes, and then transfer to a rack to cool. If they are resistant to leaving the pan, you can give each one a gentle twist to allow it to release more easily. You can eat these warm, but I recommend allowing them to cool fully first and then warming back up.

Thirty seconds in the microwave does the trick, and then the muffins will make a nice warm base to help melt the blueberry butter. That way is will soak into the tender crumb and make these even more moist.

Store baked and cooled muffins in a sealed container at room temperature for a couple days. As for the butter, store that in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days. If you have extra butter, try spreading it on your favorite warm bread.

How to Serve Banana Rum Muffins

Whenever I make muffins, I picture them in a towel-lined basket as the centerpiece of a brunch table to start the meal. Follow these up with a blueberry french toast casserole to keep with the theme. For something different, try pairing these with a fruit bake, like a pear and apple crisp or fresh cherry cobbler.

If you are throwing a larger brunch party, add some other selections to your bread basket. Squares of butternut squash curry cornbread, slices of cinnamon praline stuffed challah, and vegan triple chocolate muffins will add some nice variety to these fluffy treats.

And of course, don’t forget the drinks! These banana yogurt muffins go well with a refreshing blueberry and basil moscow mule. Or try pairing them with anything rum-based, like pecan pie hot buttered rum. For a quick breakfast, grab one of these muffins to have on the go with a chai latte green smoothie.

Use Up Leftover Ingredients

• Extra blueberries make a perfect snack on their own or inside a chocolate avocado truffle. You can also use them to make super fun and colorful blueberry cheesecake cookies.
• Bananas are a great base for plant-based smoothies, like a tasty black forest smoothie with chocolate and cherries.
• I love baking with greek yogurt! Try it in a fun twist on lemon bars with a pecan shortbread crust.
• Add a little flair with dark rum to your next brunch with bananas foster stuffed french toast.

Special Equipment

• Mixing bowls
• Whisk
• Plastic wrap
• Foil
• Muffin pan
• Cooling rack

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• Teal towel
• Small teal plate
• Similar spreader
• Similar basket
• Small teal dish
• Potato masher