Banana Muffins
Few things bother a baker more than a recipe which gives a quantity which cannot be measured. In particular, a recipe for anything banana which requires 1 banana.
A lady banana? A large banana? A regular banana? I prefer, as do most who bake with regularity, something more specific. Weight, specifically. 200 grams is much easier to acquire than the mystical regular banana. With a proper recipe, little is more wonderful than banana bread. Since banana bread is a muffin (by procedure, a muffin is a thing as opposed to a pancake or a cake), it is easy to make and the batter stores for a up to three days in the refrigerator.
When using bananas for baking, the more well done, the better. All brown skin but firm flesh is the yummiest for me. For baking, the riper the better. Getting all that stored sugar is best accomplished by freezing the bananas, in the skins, in a plastic bag, till solid. When getting ready to make the mix, remove the bananas to the refrigerator the night before. Once thawed, simple cut off the stem end of the banana, hold the banana over a bowl and squeeze the inside out. The banana inside will slide out easy peasy. This is what we want for baking. Since they have been frozen, the cell walls of the banana are compromise, giving us easy access to all the banana goodness inside. They pureé easily with just a hand whisk. And, since the cell walls are damaged, the available moisture is free to act as our liquid.
A muffin by any other name may not be a muffin. The name is less important than the process. Muffin process mixes all the wet, and for muffins, the sugar is a wet item, then pouring the dry onto that, mixing much less than you think necessary and stop. Muffins do not need mixers or food processors or machines of any kind to mix them. This is as old fashioned as it gets.
The process is the key, and its simple. Mix the wet stuff, sugar, eggs, bananas, melted butter and vanilla into a bowl. Sift the flour, salt, soda together and dump on top of the wet stuff. Fold the wet and dry together, not more than twelve turns and that’s it. No kidding.
The recipe:
15 oz banana (banana out of the skin)
10 oz white sugar
2 eggs (large)
3 oz melted, slightly cooled, butter
1 t vanilla
11 oz all-purpose flour, sifted
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
½ C chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Gently whisk the banana, sugar egg, vanilla and melted butter together in a bowl large enough to hold the batter. Sift the flour soda and salt. Add the dry to the wet and with a wide, gentle turning motion, scoop down the sides of the bowl to the bottom and pull up the spatula at the center of the bowl and fold the bottom onto the top. Turn the bowl a bit, repeat the motion. Continue turning and folding not more than 12 times. Worry not if there be lumps. Allow the batter to stand 10 miinutes, then scoop and bake. I bake them for about 18 minutes and they come out just right. I like to top the raw muffins with sanding sugar or a streusel dough or even chia seeds. A garnish with a crunch is a nice touch.
It can also be baked as a loaf! Takes about 65 minutes. Check the center bottom with a wooden skewer to be sure it’s done.
