I've never used cantaloupe in baking, but I said to myself, why not? It's like a sweeter, softer zucchini, should work ok, right? I also had some banana left over from another project so I used that up as well (necessity is the mother of invention) and the flavor combination of the two fruit is quite a pleasant surprise. The banana, along with a bit of applesauce, replaced a good portion of the oil/butter normally required in a zucchini bread list of ingredients and helped lighten up this treat.
First step of prep is to grate your cantaloupe on the large side of a box grater - if yours is as juicy ripe as mine, you'll get a lot of juice in addition to the fruit shreds. Drain the juice and reserve for a different application. What I did with mine was freeze it in a wide glass container, then scrape it up with a fork for quick and delicious natural snow cones! If using banana, mash it and have it ready, you can mix it with the applesauce since they get used together a bit later.
Next, mix your dry ingredients - this is important to ensure even distribution of spices and leavening agents as well as eliminating any clumps from your flour. I like weighing out my flour to ensure proper measuring as density can vary greatly based on how long it's been sitting in a container, how it's scooped and so on. I used cinnamon and powdered ginger, but any combination of warm spices you enjoy would work well here. Or leave them out and use a bit of extra vanilla too if you're not a fan of cinnamon. Also, don't forget the salt! A little goes a long way but it's essential in accentuating flavor.
Whisk the eggs, oil and vanilla extract until frothy, this helps incorporate air into your batter already and makes it easier for the baking powder/soda to raise the muffins during baking. Then add mashed banana, applesauce and cantaloupe and stir until incorporated. Fold in dry ingredients until just integrated, don't overstir so you don't develop too much gluten and end up with gummy muffins.
If you want a touch of chocolate flavor/marbled effect, fill your prepared muffin tins halfway with the mix at this stage, reserving 1/6th of the batter in the bowl. Stir a couple of tbsp of cocoa in the remaining batter and divide among all the muffins, swirling with a toothpick to mix slightly into the top. Alternately, you can skip the cocoa and just sprinkle a few mini chocolate chips on top of each one, my kids really dig chocolate chips in just about anything. Or sprinkles, always sprinkles.
Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through and springy on top, a toothpick should come out clean. Enjoy slightly cooled or at room temperature. These store well in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.
