Banana Blueberry Muffins
I’ve never been a huge fan of bananas, I thought that they were gross as a child, grew to like them as an adult, only to discover that they give me heartburn. Heartburn? Who knows, my mother has this same problem with them. I’ve always liked banana bread though (despite the heartburn), as a child my mother would always put bananas that were so ripe that no one would touch them in the freezer to later use them in banana bread. Now that I am also an adult, I do the same thing. I have a plethora of frozen bananas in my freezer waiting to be baked.
Tired of only making banana bread with the frozens, I searched for some alternative to the loaf and found this wonderful recipe for blueberry banana muffins on epicurious.com. They aren’t laden with butter like so many other muffin recipes and despite their sweet goodness, they were actually pretty healthy, using the fruit to sweeten them instead of a lot of sugar.
My sister-in-law came this weekend with her husband and their two children, 1 and 4 years old. Knowing Italians and their sweet teeth in the morning hours, I figured I would avoid any real eggy American breakfast and prepare something ahead of time that they would like. I had made this recipe a few months before and loved how the muffins turned out. I wasn’t as pleased with my result this time. There was something that didn’t work with the flour this time. I had also tried to make bread with it and woke up to liquid dough the next morning. I’m not sure what chemical imbalance turned my dough into a milkshake and my muffins into flat paper weights, but I am going to return to the self-rising flour as soon as this bizarre all-purpose flour has been consumed.
Despite the fact that these muffins didn’t turn out perfectly, my previous success convinced me that this recipe was worth writing about and gives me the opportunity to add my own suggestions to changes that the recipe needs. One would be to get yourself some self-rising flour, not just for great muffins, but for the fluffiest pancakes you could ever imagine and great bread without having to have an extra sack of bread flour lying around. I also used the same proportions for 12 regular muffins and made a tin of mini muffins as well with my 4 year old nephew in mind. This made the bigger muffins a little shorter than they were meant to be, I suggest either doubling the recipe or just making the 12 muffins that they recipe is meant for. His feeling special in having muffins just for him was worth all of my other misshapes though.
Blueberry and Banana Muffins adapted from epicurious.com
- 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour (the recipe suggests all-purpose)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup oat bran (I’ve never used to oat bran, just add an extra 1/4 cup of flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
- 1/2 cup unflavored soy milk (I only buy vanilla, it works well)
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries or 1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries, unthawed (6 to 7 ounces)
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners, or grease the muffin pan, you loose so much muffin with those paper liners. Combine flour, sugar, oat bran, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl; whisk to blend.
Place mashed bananas in large bowl. Stir in soy milk, egg, oil, and lemon juice. Mix in dry ingredients, then blueberries. Divide batter among muffin papers. Bake muffins until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Turn muffins out onto rack and cool 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Italicious 