Banana Walnut Muffins

Here I am, posting from sunny California ... just kidding.  It's my blog, posting all by itself.  I thought perhaps you'd miss me while I'm gone.

We're out of muffins again, which are a good go-to breakfast, both for me and for Ian (I've been trying to eat mostly fruit or yogurt, but sometimes I just want carb).  A few weeks ago a friend mentioned that she makes muffins every Saturday with her boys, and recommended Mark Bittman's recipe.  The wonderful thing about Bittman is that he gives you lots of ideas for tinkering, so that you can end up with something that suits your tastes without risking the potential disaster of a complete baking experiment.  I wanted whole grain, or at least mostly whole grain, and fruit.

I had some bananas in the freezer (for those of you who don't know this, something magical seems to happen to the chemical structure of frozen ripe bananas--skin on--that turns them into pure sugar, and defrosted slightly, they become a breeze to mash or whir into a smoothie ... just run them under warm water to slip them out of their skins), and I like the fact that if I use bananas in a recipe, I don't need to use as much sweetener or oil. 

We came up with these, which have just the right balance of sweetness and whole grain heartiness.  I tossed in some nuts for extra protein, and they were a nice complement to the wheat bran.  I think next time I use this recipe I might also add 1/4 c. or so of Greek yogurt, just to increase the moistness and size of the crumb a little bit.  If you try this, let me know how it works.

Bittman recommends that you serve these warm, and so do I.

Banana Walnut Muffins

3/4 c. all purpose flour1 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. wheat bran
1/2 t. salt3 t. baking powder
1/4 c. honey or maple syrup
3 T. light olive oil
1 egg (vegans can use EnerG egg replacer or 1 T. flax seeds ground, mixed with 3 T. water)
1 c. very ripe banana, mashed
1/4 c milk of your choice (rice, soy, etc ... plus more if needed)
1/2 c. walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl; separately, in a medium bowl, mix together wet ingredients.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.  Combine the ingredients so that the dry ones are just moistened; the batter should be lumpy and somewhat thick, but you can add a little milk if you need to.

Spoon into muffin cups or a greased/oiled muffin pan and bake 20-30 minutes, until the tops are just beginning to brown and toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool 5 minutes and remove from the pan.