Sunday, April 11, 2010

Raisin Banana Cupcakes

Ah, another Saturday morning, another Maida Heatter breakfast treat! Despite the name cupcakes, these are real muffins, with more banana than anything else. But sadly for Alicia and Claire and all the other raisin-haters, these do have raisins.

So here's the line-up. As you can see from my bananas, it was definitely time to make these muffins! But someone ate the third banana I was saving, so I had to carefully cut the recipe in half (because I ended up with half of the given weight of bananas). I always hate it when I have to do half an egg, but it worked out OK.

Here they are, all baked up. The half recipe only made 6 giant muffins, which disappeared very quickly, even though Claire only took a few bites, objecting to the raisins. Julia claimed this time to not object to raisins per se, but said that they didn't contribute to this recipe. We agreed that the same amount of walnuts would probably be better.
So the verdict? Meh. These were fine, but they probably won't become my go-to banana muffin recipe. But here's the recipe so that you can make your own judgement:

Raisin Banana Cupcakes

3.5 oz. light raisins or walnuts
1 c. (4 oz.) sifted flour (I used about half whole wheat)
3/4 t. baking powder
3/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cinnamon
3 large (12 oz., peeled) bananas, mashed
1 large egg
1/3 c. (2.3 oz.) dark brown sugar
1/4 c. (2 oz.) vegetable oil (I used melted butter; some nut oil might be nice here)

Heat the oven to 375; line or spray about 20 muffin cups. Put the raisins in a heatproof bowl or cup and cover them with boiling water. (Or toast the walnuts) Let them sit while you put the muffins together. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the bananas, egg, sugar, and oil. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Drain the raisins and add them (or the walnuts) as well. Spoon/pour the mixture (like Maida's other muffin recipes, this is pretty liquidy) into the prepared muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes (check after 20) or until the top springs back when gently pressed. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy the beginning of your day.

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