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Tuesday 6 July 2010

Banana Wholemeal Muffins

I have an embarrassing confession - I can't bake muffins and cookies. And I know you're all thinking what all good muffin bakers say to me; 'Muffins are the easiest thing to make, you just put all the ingredients together and don't over stir!'. Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before and I personally think that is all just a ginormous conspiracy to make me realise how inadequate a baker I am! Okay, so in actual fact I've only attempted muffins once before now so perhaps I judged myself to hastily. But I can make three-layer cakes dammit! I can't believe I was stumped by a silly orange muffin! (In case you're wondering what was wrong with it, it tasted good but was hard as a rock cake!). And I've only made cookies once too,  a very long time ago, and I can't even remember how bad they were but I'm going to go with very bad if I blocked it out of my memory - forgetting food is not something I do often!

On a related aside, when I worked at Penguin, there was this thing called a pulp shelf - basically, all Penguin books that weren't sold in book stores are returned to the publisher and it was cheaper to get rid of (pulp) them than it was to take them back to the warehouse and sort them out so our pulp shelves were stocked every day and we were allowed to take 2 books a day. That was probably the best perk of the job for a bookaholic like me! However, all the books usually went within 10 minutes of the shelves being stocked so luck played a part too. My friend Ben saw and took this book 'Muffin Bible' before I did but after some shameless begging, he let me have it on the condition that I bake them all muffins from the book - bet he regretted that when I brought in my chocolate orange rock cakes muffins! It's an amazing book with lots of different recipes that all look great! Now that I've made my first successful batch of muffins, I might give some of the others a go.

Say hello to my 'You're not a failure' muffins! I liked to think they are pretty healthy as they don't have much sugar (and what they do contain is brown) and they use wholemeal flour so I had them for breakfast for a week! They're not too sweet and were soft and fluffy, just like other people's muffins are! Yay me! And perhaps all those bakers are right, they were very easy to make ;p

Ingredients

2 ripe banana
1 egg
75g butter, melted
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup hot milk
1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
2tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sultanas

1 - Mash bananas and add egg, butter and baking soda dissolved in milk
2 - Add remaining ingredients and mix until just combined
3 - Three-quarters fill well-greased muffin pans and bake at 200ÂșC for 15-20 minutes.

8 comments:

Mari said...

Oooh... yummy! I'm craving muffins now. I really should trying making some one of these day (using ure recipe). I'll let you know how they turn out.

Nicole Peterson said...

I think it is challenging to get a muffin to the texture you like. Personally I like mine to be more cake like in texture. I have been on the hunt for several months for the perfect blueberry muffin recipe, can't find one that has the perfect balance of sweetness with the texture I want. This banana recipe looks interesting and a healthier alternative. Not familiar with sultanas (have to google). I use the MS recipe and have got awesome results.

And I envy you because I have the hardest time getting my layer cakes to look pretty. Have not mastered the art of icing cakes - that is why I always defer to making cupcakes instead.

Ms Afropolitan said...

This post made me chuckle. Well done on you for climbing the muffin hurdle.
They look and sound delish!

Unknown said...

@Mari: I'd definitely recommend making your own muffins, they're so easy and you get that freshly baked smell filling your entire kitchen; yum! Let me know how they go.

@Nicole: You'll just have to keep trying blueberry muffin recipes till you find 'The one' :D Oh, and sultanas are like raisins but white grapes. My cakes look pretty (I think) but they definitely don't look professional! A friend asked me recently to make a cake for her engagement party because she loves my 'home made, rustic looking cakes' - I think that says it all ;p

@Ms Afropolitan: :D Thank you. First stop muffins, second stop cookies, final stop, the world!!

faithy said...

Hi Vickii! thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving such kind comments!

Your blog is great too and i hope to see more of your bakes and creations! :D Your muffins turned out pretty awesome imo. and i'm envious of your job..getting free cook books!!

Unknown said...

Warm banana muffins are the best. Glad you had better luck with them this time!

1511th said...

hahahahahahahahahaha, I can not stop laughing. Loved this post! I terrible with muffins too! But I will try this soon.

I miss you working at Penguin.

Yetsa said...

This post is too funny and I loved it! The muffins look great. Well done!