Apple-Banana Bran Muffins

I wish I could tell you that this recipe came from some free-willed creative vision I had.  That it came to me while standing on top of a snow-capped mountain looking over a breathtaking vista, or while meditating in a peaceful buddhist sanctuary, and suddenly a vision of Apple-Banana Bran Muffins manifested in my third eye and my destiny was found to create them.

No, not so much.  But that sure sounds nice.

In actuality, this recipe came up because of two very common predicaments that home cooks encounter all the time.
The first is this: you bought an ingredient for a certain recipe and have more leftover after you're done that you'll need to use up; What the heck to do with it besides the make the same recipe again?
The second:  There's something in your fridge or on your countertop that has Father Time working against it, and you've gotta use it up.  Or else into the garbage it goes, unused and unloved.  So sad.  Too sad.  So something has to be done.

So this recipe, you could say, came from necessity.  And don't they say that Necessity is the Mother of Invention? (you know, they)  And if I do say, it is very true in this case.  The two culprits in this case were the end of a quart of buttermilk and some very brown bananas.  And we're talking brown bananas, people.  Every day I would come home from work and I would see the bananas hanging sadly from the banana hook in our kitchen.  I would reluctantly glance at them out of the corner of my eye, blocking out their pleas that sounded something like: "Eat me! Use me! Do SOMETHING!  I can barely hold on anymore!"  It got ugly.  So, like I said with what happens in these situations, something had to be done.

And hence the birth of this recipe.  It makes one fantastic batch of muffins, and one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is that is actually makes a hearty, tasty muffin, not a cupcake disguised as a muffin, as so many muffins are these days.  There are not pounds of sugar in it, nor cups of oil - only 3 tablespoons! - so a majority of the sweetness and the moist crumb come from the ripe bananas, with a fun addition of the sweet studs of apples amidst the batter.  The buttermilk adds great flavor and tenderness, and with nutrition-rich additions of whole wheat flour, wheat or oat bran (use either!), and walnuts if you dig 'em, you can eat these muffins and feel super powered.  Breakfast on the go?  No problem.  Do it and rock it.  In fact, make a bunch and throw em in your freezer.  Then they'll be ready for you whenever you need them.

How's that for turning a sour situation into a sweet success?  



Apple-Banana Bran Muffins
Use any level of overripe banana here, from brown speckled to deep, dark doom.  The latter may look ugly, perhaps even dangerous, but these intensely overripe bananas are disguised pieces of gold, with even more flavor from their developed sugars than a just slightly overripe banana.  Waste not want not! 


Also, I found myself without wheat bran in the middle of making this batter - oops - so I improvised and blended some old-fashioned oats into a fine powder and it worked perfectly.  So wheat bran, oat bran, or a Macgyver-ed, on-the-fly oat bran of blended oats will do just fine.  


Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas, (2-3 naners)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup unprocessed wheat bran or oat bran 
• 3 tablespoons canola oil or melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup small diced apple
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in bananas, buttermilk, wheat (or oat) bran, oil and vanilla.

Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Stir in apples. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups (they’ll be quite full). Sprinkle with walnuts, if using.

Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Adapted from EatingWell Magazine

Banana Mash

I think about food. A lot. And not only in the sense of "I'm hungry, I want to eat", but in many different facets really.

I see art in food. I see cultural patterns, decisions, potential, history, personality, future, nature, nurture...the list goes on. And I so appreciate food for all of the things it shows us and gives us everyday. How many other things in life can evoke our different senses so intensely at the same time? I guess that's why I've never really met a food that I've truly hated (at least yet...and of course unless its something that is poorly made or cared for). Yeah, I might not like the flavor or texture of a certain food so much (black licorice plays a dangerous edge), but I always follow by saying "but it still does serve its purpose someway somehow!"

Am I worried that I'm hesitant to offend something that cannot think or speak? Hmm, maybe I should be... but oh well, that's me I guess.

The reason I started thinking about the many sides of food, though, was because I was thinking about the next thing I could write about to post here. Sometimes I feel like one of my food thoughts (something I see, make, eat...) is too small or insignificant to write about on here. Does anyone else really care? I always wonder. This morning however, as I was making my oatmeal, I realized that this is such a silly sentiment. In reality, it never hurts to share a thought or idea. You never know what it will mean for someone else, or, what it will mean to you as it changes through someone else's perspective.

So today, as my oatmeal cooked on the stove, I made my favorite bowl-accompaniment of banana with some sort of nut butter (sometimes peanut, sometimes almond, sometimes a mixture of the two, plus some chopped walnuts... if I'm feeling sassy). But instead of just slicing the former and scooping in the later; you take your banana, mash it with a fork, add a spoonful or two of nutbutter, and mash away until its all mixed.

I know a lot of us know the flavor or banana and peanut butter together -- nothing new there. But for some reason, the first time I made this I tasted it and was blown away and pleasantly surprised by what I was tasting. The two flavors were so much more married in this mashed state, as opposed to its chunkier, disconnected, non-mashed predecessor. The natural sugars of the banana break down and mingle right next to the salty, hearty ground nuts, and they are introduced seamlessly together to the tongue with their now wetter, glossier texture. This is why its best to do this with just ripe and older bananas - keep the greener youngsters for a snack or cereal.

I love it in oatmeal, I love it on toast, I love it straight up. I call it Banana Mash.
Because it's as simple as its name suggests, and that counts.