strawberry banana muffins

Get the strawberries roasting in the oven right away. 30 minutes into roasting, work on the bananas and then when there's about 15 minutes left on the timer, begin assembly of the muffin batter. The bananas can either be frozen or fresh but they must be very ripe. 

Inspired by America's Test Kitchen and Zoe Bakes but invented by yours truly. 
Makes 1 dozen muffins in a standard muffin tin

3/4 pound strawberries, roasted
1 1/4 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons
3 overly ripe bananas
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
4 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sugar in the raw

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Rinse, dry and half the strawberries. Toss the berries with 1/4 cup sugar and place in a single layer on the baking sheet. Roast for 1 hour. Remove from oven and the increase oven temperature to 425 degrees.

Take your bananas. You can use either very ripe bananas you have in your fruit bowl or I pulled out the  very ripe bananas I keep in my freezer for banana bread emergencies. If you freeze your bananas in their skins just microwave them for 45 seconds until you can separate the fruit from the skin. Place the peeled bananas in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and poke some vent holes in the top with a fork. Microwave the bananas for 4 minutes. Pour the contents of the bowl (careful it's hot!) into a  fine mesh strainer over another bowl and let it drain. Take the collected juice and put it into a small saucepan. Over medium heat, reduce the banana juice by half until it is nice and syrupy. This will concentrate the flavor. Trust me. Set the banana syrup and banana solids aside for use later.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and remaining 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar until well combined. Incorporate the buttermilk, vanilla and banana solids and syrup. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until JUST combined. The mixture should be very lumpy and there should be several dry flour spots; that is the way of the muffin...so says Chris Kimball.

Take your strawberries and mash them up - use either a potato masher or an immersion blender. Make sure they're chunky. Pour your strawberries into the batter and fold in with a spatula. Only do 4-5 folds total. You want to strawberry incorporated but you don't want to lose the delicious swirls either.

Spray a standard muffin tin with cooking spray. Using your 1/3 measuring cup, scoop up a generous amount of batter and place into a muffin well. Repeat. The batter should come to the top of the well.

Take some raw sugar and sprinkle on the top of each muffin. Bake at 425 degrees until the tops are golden and just firm, about 18 minutes. Rotate the pan half way through baking time. Cool muffins in the tin for 5 minutes them remove to a cooling rack and let rest 5 more minutes before serving.