After living in a flat with no oven for eight months, I have taken every opportunity to bake/roast/broil my meal in my new oven. Eggplant parmesan, baked pasta, broiled chicken, and roasted autumn vegetables have all recently made an appearance on the dinner table, and I do not anticipate a slowdown in this hearty comfort food with winter approaching. This morning, I made my go-to recipe for banana muffins for the first time this year, and greedily devoured two of them while still warm from the oven. They were unintentionally healthier than usual because I only had whole-grain flour on hand, but it just added an extra bit of crunch and nuttiness to the muffins.
CHOCOLATE BANANA MUFFINS
From my cookbook
INGREDIENTS:
3 overripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup applesauce (which I only found at Whole Foods under the label "Apple Purée")
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour (some/all can be subbed with whole-grain flour)
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
a little more than 1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup each of: chopped dark chocolate, walnut pieces, dried cranberries
flavourings of your choosing (orange zest, cinnamon, and cardamom are all excellent)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 425°F (about 220°C). Combine the bananas, applesauce, egg, and vanilla extract in a standing mixer with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and flavourings together in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just blended. Fold in chopped chocolate, nuts, and dried fruit. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for about 11 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out with moist crumbs.
Serves: 12
Time to Table: 35 minutes
