Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Bananas pose somewhat of a problem for me. They’re nutritious. They’re conveniently portable and self-contained. They’re relatively inexpensive. However, I only like them just prior to becoming ripe. Once bananas become fully ripe (and reach the peak of deliciousness, I’m told by others), I can’t do it. It has mostly to do with texture, I think. Too mushy. And the taste. Too much banana. Too banana-y.

As a result, there are usually a number of brown bananas in the freezer, which end up in various cakes, muffins, and breads. Unfortunately, I don’t care for any of those (again, too much banana). Fortunately, I’m in the minority and can always find people to help me out. I’ve taken to making muffins instead of loaves, as they are more easily distributed and don’t end up all in one place (e.g., Jeff’s belly).

Using standard muffins cups and a greased 1/3 cup measure for scooping, this yielded more than 12 muffins. I’m guessing it probably would make about 15. Rather than make more regular muffins, I used a cookie scoop and a little tartlet pan to make 12 little muffin tops (or muffies, if you prefer), as we all know the best part of the muffin is the top, right? Some of my previous Perkins coworkers can vouch for my obsession with muffin tops (“Hey Alex—wanna share a muffin? I left you the bottom half…”).

Little muffies, all in a row...

As you can tell in the pictures, the oven has fairly savage hot and cool spots. It also lacks a window on the door and a light on the inside. I feel that adds more risk (and sometimes, more reward) to the cooking/baking process. I opted not to remove that risk by rotating the muffin pans halfway through baking. Be adventurous! Don’t rotate! Just kidding. Or am I?

And lastly, dear Rachael: I could not help but think of you while I was baking these. I contemplated making a cream cheese frosting, just like they had on the good days at the Norm, in honor of you. Miss you!

Muffin glamour shot!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 ½ cups whole or low-fat yogurt

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 large eggs

1 stick butter, melted and cooled

1 cup (or more) chocolate chips

3 very ripe bananas, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 2 12-cup muffin tins or one 12-cup tin and whatever you can find with which you want to experiment.

Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the yogurt, vanilla, and eggs until smooth. Fold the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients until barely combined. Fold in melted butter. Fold in chocolate chips and bananas, being careful not to over-mix.

Scoop batter into muffin cups using a greased 1/3 cup measure. Bake until golden and toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes (less is you make smaller muffins). If you’re feeling ambitious, rotate the pans halfway through baking.

Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then let cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving. These are best the day they’re made, but have enough moisture to keep a couple days.

A successful experiment: blueberry fritter bread!

For my very first job I worked as a hostess and cashier at a bakery and restaurant. There were many delicious things (cookies, artisan bread, pies!) but the most popular item they carried was fritter bread. Fritter bread was available in a wide variety of flavors and eaten both fresh and as amazing French toast. Fritter bread was pricey back then and even more so now—fetching $5.99 a loaf. I recently got the idea to try making my own with no-knead dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. This is also my first attempt at (almost) step-by-step photographic documentation… the light’s not great in the kitchen—apologies!

I adapted the blueberry compote recipe from She Simmers. I ended up with about twice as much compote than I needed, but the extra is delicious in plain yogurt (here’s an opportunity to make your own, if you haven’t tried it yet) or on ice cream. If you don't want the extra, half the compote ingredients.

And, without further ado:

Blueberry Fritter Bread

1 pint blueberries, washed but still wet

1/2 cup powdered sugar (more if your blueberries need it)

1 pound no-knead Artisan bread dough (challah, brioche, or boule dough)

Splash milk, cream, or lemon juice and additional 1/4 cup powdered sugar for glaze

Put wet blueberries in small saucepan. Add 1/2 powdered sugar. Stir to combine. Heat over medium-low heat until thick and syrupy, stirring occasionally. Carefully sample to check sweetness balance and add more sugar if necessary.

Transfer half of compote into a large bowl and let cool until warm, but not hot. Enjoy the other half on pancakes, yogurt, ice cream, etc.

While the compote is cooking, pat bread dough to roughly ¾-inch thickness on floured surface.

With a bench scraper or knife coated with cooking spray, slice the dough into small pieces.

Add the dough pieces (separate as you add them to the bowl if stuck together) to the compote bowl and gently stir until all the dough pieces are coated with compote. Transfer mixture to a greased loaf pan and let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Bake in a 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until crusty on top. If in doubt, bake a little longer. There’s a lot of moisture in the dough and compote and you want to make sure it bakes all the way through.

Let cool in pan for 15 minutes then turn out onto wire rack. Let cool completely (if you can wait. I couldn’t). Gradually add milk, cream, or lemon juice to ¼ cup powdered sugar until a glaze consistency is reached. Drizzle onto bread.

There you have it!

See those blueberries? They're in the bread! That slice didn't last long...

Get creative with the filling- try raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, or apple. If you have any bread left over, I highly recommend French toast or bread pudding. Or, make two loaves and save one for later!

Breakfast potatoes!

One of my favorite things to make on weekends is a batch of breakfast potatoes (or home fries, or cottage fries, or b-pots, or whatever you'd like to call them). They're perfectly crisp on the outside, light on the inside, and go well with just about anything for breakfast. My husband also likes to slice some brats and cooks them up with these potatoes for a quick, masculine dinner.


Home Fries
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (russet potatoes work just fine, too!)
1/4 vegetable oil (I use a little less)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (I replace some with bacon grease. Yum!)
1 onion, chopped fine
Salt and pepper
Minced fresh herbs, if desired (such as thyme and/or flat-leaf parsley)

1. In a large microwave-safe bowl, toss the potatoes with the oil Cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave until potatoes are tender, but not falling apart, 5-10 minutes, shaking the bowl to redistribute every 3 minutes (careful- it will be hot!). Remove the plastic wrap (watch out for steam) and drain thoroughly in a colander.

2. Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat (I find that a nonstick works best for developing a crust on the potatoes, but a regular skillet works just fine, too). Add the potatoes to the skillet and distribute evenly over the pan. Cook undisturbed until golden brown on one side, about 5 minutes. Carefully turn to ensure even browning and add onion to skillet. Continue cooking, turn every few minutes until well browned and the onion is softened, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Add herbs, season to taste, and serve immediately.

No-Knead Challah

One of my first memories of cooking that ended in utter failure was making french toast. I was in elementary school and had scaled down a recipe to make a smaller batch. Under the salt quantity, I had merely written "1/8." Now, at this stage in my life and culinary experience, it did not occur to me that 1/8 of a teaspoon was a likely amount of salt for french toast batter. Instead, I put in 1/8 cup. Whoops. I didn't realize the mistake until serving time. I was so excited because, visually, everything looked delicious. I was so proud of my creation! Then, we all took a bite. And that was all we took. My brother tried giving his piece to our beloved dog who ate everything. Well, almost everything. The dog tried one bite then proceeded to drink his entire water supply.

Anyway, we still like french toast. My dad recently told me he read the challah makes the best french toast, but he had never heard of it. I used to work at a bakery that made challah on rotation, but had never tried it for french toast. So, I decided to bake a loaf to bring with for my visit this weekend to make french toast for brunch!

I am a big fan of the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I'm guessing that most everybody is familiar with the method, and if you're not, I highly recommend popping over to their website to check it out. I made a half batch of their challah dough and make half into their strawberry danish recently feature on the website and the other half into a braided loaf. Compared to the other wet, no-knead doughs, this one was so easy with which to work! I was very pleased with how the loaf turned out. It smelled wonderful, but I didn't even taste it! I wanted to save it for french toast... more to come...


Upcoming posts: shredded chicken tacos, easy peanut butter brownies, and pesto!