What Does That Mean?
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 often, 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.
No Mid-rare bananas, please
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 compromised, 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.
ID please
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.
Banana muffins
Fresh from the oven banana muffins are a delight. These are so easy and just so great you'll be buying bananas in bulk just to let them go brown for these muffins.
Ingredients
The mix
- 15 oz Thawed bananas, removed from their skins
- 10 oz White sugar
- 2 each Large eggs
- 3 oz Melted butter, cooled
- 1 t Vanilla
- 11 oz All purpose flour, sifted
- 1 t Baking soda
- 1 t Salt
- .5 C Toasted chopped walnuts, optional
Instructions
Mix the batter
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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.
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Sift the flour soda and salt. Yes, the flour will be sifted twice.
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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.
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Turn the bowl a bit, repeat the motion. Continue turning and folding not more than 12 times. Worry not if there be lumps.
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Allow the batter to stand 10 minutes, then scoop and bake. I generally don't use papers for muffins but do coat the tins well with homemade pan release.
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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.
Recipe Notes
Homemade pan release is super easy to make and any extra you have can be covered and refrigerated till the next bake.
Melt together 2 oz of whole butter and 1 oz of flour. Use very low heat. The goal is to just melt the butter so the flour gets mixed in. When that has happened, your pan release is done. Brush it into any pan which needs help. If you know you've tricky pans, Madeleine pans, for example, it is a good idea to brush the pan, cool in the fridge 5 minutes and brush again. For a few extra minutes of brushing you get out what you put in as intended, not piecemeal.