Banana Oat Muffins

I'm trying to decide if my recent migration towards heartier muffins--ones imbued with whole grains and other nubbly bits, from sorry excuses for eating cake for breakfast, signals something significant or is just my body's natural attempt at rebalancing itself from sugarfest that marks each and every December.

Don't get me wrong, I think into every life more than a little cake for breakfast must fall. Same with cheeziepoofs for supper: sometimes all you need for a full meal is something you'd normally reserve for a once in a while treat. Perhaps it's my embodiment of the great Julia Child's belief of everything in moderation, including moderation.

My problem with oatmealy muffins is their inextricable association with old people and "regularity." The same sort of regularity that comes from prunes and castor oil. (Okay. I do love prunes...but not for that reason. I think they are just like candy.) Then there's the McHealthiness associated with nutrionism and the bandwagon jumpers who drone on and on about whole grain this and oaty that.

These muffins were born from a burden of a couple of mushy bananas and utter boredom with my usual banana bread (which does get turned into muffins from time to time). Yes, I could jazz things up by switching the fruit, adding nuts or introducing chocolate, but no. I wanted something different, something with a bit more oomphy-heartiness to it. Hearty--but not leaden--they are. Oomphy...not so much. But that's okay.



Banana Oat Muffins
Yield 6 ginomous muffins or 12 regular ones

130g ap flour
65g whole wheat flour
0.5t cinnamon
1 dspn baking powder
0.5t bicarbonate of soda
0.25t salt
90g sugar
2 mashed bananas (roughly 250ml)
60ml vegetable oil
1t vanilla extract
80ml buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
50g rolled oats

Preheat oven to 170C/350F. Line or grease a 6-bun muffin tray with papers. You're looking at the ginormous muffin-sized tray, not the sane muffin-sized ones. If you want sane-sized ones, grab and grease or paper as 12-bun muffin tray.

Stir together flours, baking powder, bicarb and cinnamon.

Combine bananas, salt, sugar, oil, vanilla, buttermilk and eggs.

Stir the dry mixture into the wet until just combined, then fold in the oats.

Dollop into the prepared muffin trays. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

cheers!
jasmine

In a crunchy but slightly mushy mood

As a run-up to Mmm...Canada, this week's posts will feature Canadian foods and food products. Today's post uses oats.

About two months ago, when I outted myself as a pinhead, I mentioned my sudden craving for granola.

Our dearest Ivonne visited me about a year ago and brought with her a parcel filled with homemade granola. It was so good--sweet and crunchy, studded with cranberries and blueberries--I had it with milk, yoghurt and ice cream...I was even grabbing handfuls as snacks. Wanting to satisfy my craving, I emailed her for the recipe and she obliged.

That's one of the things I really like about being a part of the food blogging community. We can ask each other for hints, recipes, techniques and even the occasional ear or opinion and it's generally freely given. No questions asked.

We visit each other's pages and riffle through their recipe books and pantries. We ooh and ah at intricate pastries and commiserate over horrible casseroles. Our dishes span many cuisines and courses, not to mention lifestyles and preferences. We dare each other to expand our horizons and invite one another to create new foods.

We can say "Hey! I want to do an event featuring my home country and I want you participate--you don't need to find it on a map, or have visited or anything, but I just want you to join in on the fun."


And for the most part they'll say "Hey! I can find it on a map and YES I'd love to take part."

Better yet, we can say "Hey, I'm going to be in your neck of the woods...wanna hang out?" and you can usually find a dining companion...


And like many RL communities, word spreads about our joys and our pains. We find little gifts in our mailboxes (real and virtual). We support freely and we are supported unexpectedly.

Most of this without ever meeting each other face-to-face.

Fruit and Nut Granola
adapted from Stonewall Kitchen Favourites

125g rolled oats
55g pinhead oats
50g sweetened shredded coconut
50g sunflower seeds
50g pumpkin seeds
50g whole almonds
35g brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ ginger
75ml maple syrup
60ml oil
1tsp vanilla extract
100g dried fruit

Putting it together

1. Preheat oven to 150C/300F and line a baking tray with foil or parchment
2. Mix all the ingredients together, spread evenly on the prepared tray and pop into the oven for 30-40 minutes. Stir every 10 minutes or so, so the granola doesn't clump together. The granola is ready to come out of the oven when it's a lovely golden colour
3. Remove from oven and put the tray on a cooling rack. Stir once or twice until cool
4. Keeps in an airtight container for up to six weeks.

cheers!
jasmine