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

The 16th Batch

Just posted on LIS ... its nice to finally share the final recipe with everyone!

Morning Glory Muffins, Made-Over

As an intern at America’s Test Kitchen – and also at its respective magazines Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country, numerous cookbooks, and television series - you are able to see the entire recipe development process unfold right before your eyes. And, in most cases, you are experiencing it with your own hands too. By taking on the role as an intern, you are signed up to assist the test cooks as they tirelessly test every facet of a certain recipe, which often leads to a recipe being made forty, fifty, or even seventy times. This means a lot of ingredients, a lot of prep work, and a lot of tasting. And don’t take the vague descriptor of ‘a lot’ here lightly…I’m talking slicing forty pounds of onions to make ten batches of French onion soup simultaneously…in one afternoon. How else could we know what type of beef broth is best? This was what my days were like during the thirteen week period of my time there.

To enhance our experience in the test kitchen, we (I and the other wonderful group of people interning along with me) were given a project that enabled us to mimic the procedure that a test cook goes through each time they are assigned an official recipe project. This meant that, on our own, we were to pick a recipe out of a given topic, research its background and recipe variation, test the many differing elements of the recipe, create a final ‘best recipe’ from the results of said tests, and write an article describing our testing experience behind the created dish in the style of Cook’s Illustrated magazine.

Our topic was fruit muffins. Sounds like a pretty good topic, right? When you think about muffins, they seem so cute. Harmless little palm sized delights, sitting daintily in a dishtowel-lined basket, probably ready for a summer picnic. Let me tell you though, after your 15^th batch of muffins that didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to, you start hallucinating tiny little devil horns growing out of muffin tops. Do I really have to make and taste you, AGAIN?? And the answer is yes, because you want to get it right.

Alright, I may be being overdramatic. There were no devil muffins, although I will say that none of us could even look at a muffin for a good couple of weeks after the project was done. But of course, like many challenges, it was very rewarding at the end to have completed the whole process and have your own original recipe and story laid out in an article format.

Morning Glory Muffins was what I chose as my topic. Since I was so fed up with muffins that were more like cupcakes with an identity crisis, I wanted to create a Morning Glory muffin that was still moist and delicious, without being oil slicked and bombed with refined sugar. Who wants to start their day that way? After playing around with many different ingredients and ratios – how much AP Flour to whole wheat flour? What is the real purpose of the egg yolk vs. the egg white? When and how does ‘moist’ turn the corner to ‘gummy’? - the rising heroes of the recipes proved to be apple butter and honey, each adding excellent flavor and texture profiles to the otherwise ordinary muffin. Although Morning Glories were a bold project choice with all of the different ingredients and recipes that exist, I was able to create at least one more variation to add to the list.

Morning Glory Muffins

Makes 12 Muffins

NOTE: Apple butter is a fruit spread made from the low-and-slow cooking of apples, liquid, and in some cases added sugar or spices. We prefer Whole Earth All Natural Tap’nApple Apple Butter Spread which contains only apples and apple cider. Other brands will work as well, but be sure to read the ingredients and/or taste it prior to using as these flavors will affect the final taste of your muffin.

1 cup (5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup (5 ounces) whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup packed (3.5 ounces) light brown sugar

1/2 cup apple butter (see note)

1/4 cup honey

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups grated carrots (from about 4-5 medium, peeled carrots)

1 medium Granny Smith apple peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4 inch dice (about 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or lightly spray cups with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Whisk the flours, cinnamon, baking powder, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until combined. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, brown sugar, apple butter, honey, melted butter, and vanilla extract until combined, set aside.

3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently fold until the mixture just starts to come together; streaks of flour should still remain. Add the carrots, apples, raisins, walnuts, and stir until evenly combined. Try not over-mix or you will have tough muffins.

4. Divide batter evenly among the 12 cup spaces by scooping into prepared muffin tin. It will seem like a lot of batter but don’t worry: the batter level will stand above the cup line and is stiff enough that it will stay standing. The muffins will spread out as it bakes (but will not over-rise). Bake until muffins tops have slightly browned and a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out with a few crumbs attached, 24-27 minutes. Place tin on wire rack to cool 5 minutes, then remove muffins from tin to wire rack. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. They also freeze beautifully, and may be even better the next day!

From Blueberries to Apples

Ah, Labor Day. It’s a weekend that comes every year with the most bittersweet sentiments. On the one hand we never believe that our precious months of summer have already passed us by. Schools are back in session, summer toys are put away for the season, and tank tops are swapped out for cozy sweatshirts. How long do tans last again?

On the other hand, there is the excitement of fall on the horizon, which can be one of the most pleasant and beautiful seasons of the year, especially in New England. From the picturesque landscapes of foliage to the excitement of rooting on your favorite NFL team, there are more ways than one to tell that the seasonal transition is underway. Today though, I especially felt this transition through one of the most powerful dictators of change in the calendar year (at least in my opinion): food. Today, a muffin and a crisp turned out to be more than a sum of their ingredients.

As I pulled out the bag of frozen blueberries from our freezer this morning, I couldn’t help but pop a few of them in my mouth before I folded them into the muffin batter. They slowly melted away and the sweetness you get only from summer picked Maine blueberries overtook my taste buds. I remembered the day Nini, Lina, and I went out to pick them clearly. It was the biggest triple-H week of the summer; a Hot Hazy and Humid that made the air thick and my hair a lovely ball of frizz. It didn’t stop us from picking over 15 pounds of blueberries though. The plump berries were dripping off of their branches just as the sweat dripped from our brows, trying to find some way to bear the summer sun. We survived the elements though, and drove home happy with our bushels of blue gems. Some were eaten immediately and some we packed away in the freezer so we could savor the fruits of our labor for as long as possible.

Right after our picking session I made these ‘Sunny Morning Muffins’ for the first time, mainly because I could easily add blueberries into the recipe. They were received with approving nods from the judgment panel of aunties and cousins during our annual sleepover in Rockport. Part of their success is that they encapsulate the tastes of summer so well from the pieces of strawberries and blueberries…and paired with mashed banana and toasted walnuts, they make one heck of an addition to the breakfast line-up. Seeing that now it was Labor Day weekend and a big crew was up for the holiday, I woke up today and thought that these would be a nice treat to have around. I could feel their warmth from the oven as I balanced half of the muffins down to the dock in my arms. We sat next to the water and enjoyed each and every tasty, whole-grain crumb. The sun was hot, the sky was clear, we were sprawled on the dock…but something was different. No one was swimming, the air was dry, there was talk of taking boats out of the water…a scene you would not find in the typical Maine day in, say, the middle of July, when this snack was first inspired.

The afternoon unfolded casually with relaxing boat rides and small chores around the house. There was a window of about two hours between the end of a boat ride and the beginning of the Big H barbeque at Terry and Sue’s, and I found myself wondering what I should do to fill my time. Kayak? Swim? Read? Then I remembered: apple picking! The orchard up the street had just opened for the season and I knew I had to get there before I left to go out west for the fall. I turned to my dad and asked if he had any interest. I'm not even sure why I bothered asking - without hesitation we hopped right in the truck and down Chipmunk Run we went.

My Dad and I both appreciate the quality of freshly picked summer produce. We both say that if we could eat summer corn and tomatoes every night for dinner, we would have no complaints. So, letting us go alone and unsupervised to the orchard was like letting two alcoholics loose in a liquor store (as my mom likes to call me when entering any food related venue). We walked along the rows of trees and ate and picked and ate and picked. The sky was still sunny and cloudless, and my favorite afternoon sun was making every apple and peach (bonus crop!) look like a piece of art. “Elizabeth, I think you’ve taken more pictures of the fruit than picked them.”
44 pounds later…(!), we drove back to camp with Cortlands, Macintosh, early Honey Crisp, and peaches for all to enjoy.

I walked in the door of the log cabin to see the crisp topping already in the process of being put together by my mom. I chose a few of the best Macs and Corts to wash and dice up. Once they were in the pan (which was big enough to hold a necessary double batch) they were smothered with oats, flour, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a dash of clove.

When dinner time finally arrived, we sat and ate our burgers, hot dogs, sausages, beans, salad, and orzo salad (we wonder why we never starve up here...) as the sun set. We couldn’t believe the chill that had crept through the air. There was no need for a thermometer to tell us the lake temperature was dropping – the steam that slowly drifted off the water surface said enough. We quickly gravitated into the house upstairs where the apple crisp was minutes away from being done. “Smell that crisp!” everyone said as they entered the room. It seemed as though the smell of those spices played an equal role to the warming of our bodies as the heat of the house. Once the crisp had time to cool off a bit, I cracked through the crispy crust to the soft apple interior and divvied out dessert to everyone, with Lina as my ice cream assistant. Everyone sat and enjoyed their bowlful, continuously commenting on how good it tasted. Although they probably didn’t fully realize it, I knew that it didn’t have to do with the mixture of butter and sugar and apples that lay before them (at least not fully). I knew that even though they probably couldn’t pin point the last time they had eaten a crisp, it wasn’t recent, and the certain taste in their mouths was telling their bodies that it was finally time to accept fall as the current season. It was a taste they were realizing they had missed – a taste that only really comes around during a certain time of year. Not only did it affirm that dishes taste better when they are made with fresh and seasonal ingredients, but also that that is the sole reason of why we only save particular foods and recipes for specific times of the year. When we return to experiencing those tastes, we know for certain that a new chapter is beginning.

So there it was – my day turned out to be one of those days that you truly realize that change you had anticipated was finally coming. With a goodbye to summer through its last frozen blueberries, fall was graciously received with its first apple harvest. And even though there were hints of change from other parts of life, I found out from the simplest things, this time blueberries and apples, that the food around me can be one of the most power indicators of them all.