Thursday, July 20, 2006

Summer of the muffin

Today was the monthly birthday breakfast at work. My boss is one of the birthday girls this month. Happy birthday P, and good luck in your adoption plans! I have a great boss and I am super excited for her.

Last year I made this for her birthday breakfast. Now, the same things that were in season last July are also in season this July. Imagine that! But I didn't want to make the same recipe. For one thing, I don't have enough money for an extra trip to the store to buy hazelnuts this week. Not that hazelnuts are all that expensive, but the two tubs of ice cream, the huge watermelon and the giant bag of ice I would have surely found in my cart would start to add up. (See yesterday's post if you are confused!)

I did already have berries in the fridge though, so I thought I would combine them with the muffin mania I seem to have this summer and the two black bananas in my freezer. Muffins are not too bad to bake in hot weather if you do it at night. They only need 20-25 minutes in a moderate oven. If you are going to get all crazy and bake in the summer, muffins and cupcakes are the thing to bake.

Oh, and Sally, I needed more soft moist stuff to sub for the third banana I didn't have. Remember when we talked about that? And I had no applesauce. So creative me, I used some leftover mashed potatoes. It worked great.

Bananaberry Muffins

1 c sugar
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 c leftover plain mashed potatoes
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c milk
1 tsp cider vinegar

2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 c blueberries, well washed and sorted with stems removed
18 raspberries

Prepare muffin tins for 18 muffins. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar, oil, bananas, potatoes and eggs in mixer. Combine well. Combine milk and vinegar in a measurer and allow to curdle briefly. Add to banana mixture.

Add dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries.

Fill muffin tins 2/3 full. Remember to fill any empty cups with water so your tins don't warp. Gently press a whole raspberry into the top of each muffin. This makes them so pretty and appealing!

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until light golden brown and fragrant.

Good luck waiting until morning to try them. I know I couldn't.

1 comment:

SalGal said...

Chica, I used 4 bananas! I went out and bought nasty ones just for the occasion! I also concluded that I could use yogurt as a subsitute for applesauce. So I bought some organic vanilla yogurt last night to try it with. Of course, I forgot the bananas...