Banana-rama

We’ve all done it: bought too many bananas at the market. We have every intention of eating the fruit before it turns soft and brown, but inevitably one or two bananas do not get eaten. I had a couple wilting away on my counter yesterday and decided to try out a recipe for banana muffins.

I first turned to Old Faithful, otherwise known as the Betty Crocker cookbook. This is my go-to for traditional, simple foods like baking powder biscuits, pot roast, and meatloaf. But when I found their recipe for banana bread, I was sorely disappointed. The recipe calls for Bisquick baking mix instead of flour and baking powder or soda. I am not in the habit of buying Bisquick, and so I was disappointed to see that they didn’t offer any alternatives. This reminds me of the time I was looking up recipes for Clam Chowder. I found one recipe that started out by saying “Open 2 cans clam chowder”. Seriously.

So I pulled out another old friend, How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson. The woman makes cooking and eating unbelievably sensual and fun, so I trust her recipes implicitly. I looked in the index, and sure enough, there was a recipe for banana muffins!

The ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, vanilla, honey, butter, and bananas. That’s it! No eggs, no milk, no oil… I was intrigued enough to give it a try.

The batter was pretty dry, at first, and the recipe discourages over mixing. I turned it around in the bowl a couple of times until the wet and dry ingredients were mostly combined. It smelled and tasted great, and that was before I baked them! I’m a sucker for raw batter and dough…

I sprinkled a few chopped pecans on each muffin because nuts and bananas go together like ham and cheese; one just makes the other better! Plus, I just love a little crunch on the top of a muffin.

25 minutes later, I had these:

They’re a little dense, but very tasty. And there’s no processed sugar, so they’ve got to be pretty healthy, right?

Bottom line: if you’ve got black bananas and this book, make the muffins! They go great with coffee or a glass of milk, and they’re super quick and easy to make.