Banana Muffins

I was unsure of this recipe when I started making it. It's a muffin recipe that I found on EatYet's Blog, but unlike most muffin recipes that use the creaming method (cream the butter with the sugar so that the sugar crystals can break up and aerate the butter) this recipe has you stir the brown sugar with the bananas and then add the butter. I used frozen bananas that I defrosted in the microwave though, which meant that the sugar crystals were pretty much dissolved by the time the butter was added. In the end, the butter wasn't creamed at all, and I was left with lots of little clumps of butter.

I forged ahead figuring it probably wouldn't actually ruin anything... it would just mess with the texture a bit at worst. The original recipe called for hazelnut or whole wheat flour in addition to all purpose flour. I didn't have hazelnut flour but I did have almond meal flour so I went with that instead. I discovered half-way through the process of making the muffins that I didn't have enough raisins. *sigh* I had craisins though, so that's what went in there.

In the end they are a spicy (cinnamon, ginger, cloves and cardamom) slightly sweet banana muffin with some texture and heft from the oatmeal and almond flour and some chew from the craisins. Straight from the oven they are very good -- moist and dense and yummy. We'll see how they hold up overnight, but I hope they won't dry out too much.




Spiced Banana Raisin Oatmeal Muffins
1 banana
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup organic shortening (or butter)
2 eggs
1 cup hazelnut flour (or whole wheat flour or almond meal flour)
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
dash of cloves
dash of cardamom


Preheat oven to 350°. Break up the banana into large chunks, add sugar and molasses, mix briefly. Then add shortening, mix till completely smooth, and then add eggs one at a time till incorporated. Then mix in spices, oats, and raisins; followed by the rest of the dry ingredients. Grease or line your muffin pan and fill to 1/4 inch below the rim. I made only 10 muffins that way; if you distribute less per cup you can make 12 smaller ones. Bake for 25mins, check with a skewer.