Walnut Top Muffins

This is banana bread in a muffin!  These are so tasty and sweet.  They turned out great even though I forgot basics from my cooking class.  I mixed the batter with a hand mixer through the entire recipe.  Muffins aren't supposed to be over stirred. After I put in the dry ingredients, I should have used a wooden spoon.  Instead of applying an icing or glaze of the muffins, I topped them with walnuts before baking them.

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1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2-3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Grease muffin tin.  Cream shortening and sugar together.  Mix egg and beat until smooth.  Add mashed bananas and vanilla; mix thoroughly.  Stir in flour, baking soda and salt.  Fill muffin tins half-way or more, afterward sprinkle walnut pieces onto the unbaked muffins.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Recipe adapted from McClelland, Katherine.  "Jumbo Caramel Banana Muffins". Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2007. Ed. Michelle Brett.  Greendale, WI: Taste of Home Books, 2006. 104-105.