Banana Muffins...Banana & Pumpkin Muffins

Fall weather is FINALLY beginning to make an appearance here in so cal. The gloomy weather makes me want to craft, bake, organize, and light my vanilla and apple berry spice candles. ::sigh:: How I love the fall and winter months. No longer do I cringe at the thought of turning on the oven. My house smells like yummy fall candles and freshly baking banana muffins.

Banana eating is a phase in our household. Sometimes the whole bunch is eaten within a few days, other times they sit, and sit, and sit in the fruit basket. I hate tossing them, but alas they must go before the gnats start to populate my kitchen. Usually I have three or four bananas left... just enough to make one loaf of bread. Granted the loaf is easier to make than the muffins, but I feel that the muffins are cooked more thoroughly and I'm not left with a mushy-centered banana loaf. This time I had an entire bunch, 6 bananas, left. It was either bake or toss them, so I opted for a lot of baking today. I'm going to try freezing some of them to see if I can prolong their little muffin lives for a breakfast next week. I'll let you know how that works out.

Since I had so many bananas that were seeing their final day, I have not one, but two recipes to share with you today. I made a looooot of muffins.

The first recipe is for Banana Muffins. This recipe is in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook: mentioned in the sidebar of my blog. If you don't have access to this cookbook, here's the recipe:

Makes 1 loaf or 16 muffins.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (4-5 medium bananas)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil (I use canola.)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts. Optional. (I don't use them because I'm allergic.)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a cupcake/muffin tin. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients (except sugar).
In another bowl combine eggs, sugar, and oil. Mix well. Add bananas.
Combine with dry ingredient mixture. Do NOT over mix. The batter should be lumpy.

Bake for 15-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
If you use a loaf pan, bake for about 60+ minutes.
(When I was making the loaf, the top would almost burn before the middle was done cooking. If this happens, place some tin foil, loosely, over the top after about 45 to 60 minutes.)

Recipe 2: Banana Pumpkin Muffins

Here is the original recipe. I made some adjustments after I tasted the batter. Since it's very similar to the Banana Bread Muffins, I used the "seasoning" from that recipe in this one. Here are my ingredients along with the directions from Taste of Home (see link above). Some stuff I substituted or added because I didn't have what it called for.

Makes 16 muffins.

1 stick softened butter (1/2 cup)

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup mashed bananas (2 medium bananas)

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt (Originally 1/2 tsp, but if you use salted butter you need to adjust the salt)

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Mix in bananas, pumpkin, and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.

Combine wet and dry mixtures.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Mine took 31 minutes.

Enjoy!

Zucchini Muffins... fail.

Again, I was browsing recipes online. I have a ton of cookbooks, yet using the internet for recipes is so wonderful. Add in the online hoarding boards, Pinterest, and a girl is sitting on just this side of heaven. The crafts, organization, recipes...I digress. Anywho, since I have already accumulated a hoarders dream worth of recipes on there I decided to start actually making them. This time I saw a recipe for Low Fat Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. Given the 'fail' status of my previous bread making adventures, I decided to make muffins instead. Also, I'm not sure how chocolate and zucchini would taste together, so I made some changes to the original recipe. If you are interested in trying chocolate and zucchini, you can find the original recipe here.

*** Keep in mind that I wrote ALL of this BEFORE I tasted the final product.

At first I didn't think I had enough zucchini. Turns out 1 medium sized zucchini produces about 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini. SUCCESS! I grated it using a cheese grater. About half way through grating, I discovered that the 'small' grate was too small. Then I switched to the larger side and it produced much better shreds. Depending on how much zucchini crunch/taste you want, you can choose which shred works best for you. Here is the difference.

Recipe: 

From the original recipe I linked above, I omitted the chocolate chips, and added the spices and lemon zest. When I tasted the batter from the original one, it seemed a little bland.

Makes 12 Muffins

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour (You can use 2 cups all purpose flour if you don't have wheat.)

1/2 cup unpacked light brown sugar

1 1/8 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

1 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

2 tbsp butter, softened

1 cup 'no sugar added' apple sauce

1 1/2 cups loose, shredded zucchini

1 tbsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 325F. 

Combine flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Then mix in sugar, vanilla, butter, apple sauce, zucchini, and lemon zest.

Add flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir gently until combined.

Pour mixture into muffin tin. I lined them with foil cupcake liners.

Bake at 325 for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy!

Final Product: 

They look delicious; however, they are still pretty bland. Earlier, while I was searching zucchini bread recipes, I wondered why they all had so much sugar. Now I understand. I also understand why there were chocolate chips in the original recipe. After I photographed and tasted these moist, slightly lemon flavored, bland muffins. I topped a few of them with chocolate chips while they were still warm. Also, not good. Especially if you add the lemon. 

Conclusion: While these look amazing, I think they are flavorless for the most part. I will not be making these again and I'll be finding a new place for bread recipes. I'm thinking Taste of Home or Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart. 

Banana Pumpkin Bread

I LOVE bananas and pumpkin flavored foods. So, when I saw this recipe I was super excited to try it. Half way through I realized that I didn't have any eggs. I couldn't be too upset because my dear hubby had made eggs and toast for both of us for breakfast. After a quick trip to the market, I returned to finish my bread.

After I sliced the loaf, I thought that it needed to be baked longer. It seemed like the bottom wasn't "bread-like", but still a little doughy. The center slices also seemed a little under cooked. The thing I couldn't understand was that the toothpick came out clean. (Yes, I did insert the tooth pick in a few different spots.) Today, when I was referring to the recipe I had discovered online, I noticed that the picture she took of her loaf looked similar to mine. It looks more dense on the bottom. If I made this again, I would probably make muffins. That way it could cook more thoroughly. For me, it was a little doughy, but the taste was still really yummy. Oh, I would also use less cloves. They were a little strong for me. Therefore, I'm placing this recipe in the 'to try again' section of my recipe box.

Here is the original recipe link.

Ingredients from Skinnytaste

• Baking spray

• 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp ground cloves (I would use 1/4 tsp)

• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

• 3 very ripe medium bananas, mashed

• 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin

• 2 tbsp butter, softened

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, unpacked

• 1 large egg white

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions from Skinnytaste
Preheat oven to 325°. 
Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with baking spray.In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, pumpkin spice and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, egg, bananas, pumpkin and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.Add flour mixture and nuts (if using), then blend at low speed until combined. Do not over mix.
Pour batter into loaf pan and bake on the center rack for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the pan cool at least 20 minutes, bread should be room temperature before slicing.