Banana Muffins - and They're Vegan (Almost)!

Just when I proclaim that I'm not a recipe blogger, I have a recipe for you! Two posts in a week? Semi-fancy pictures? What in the world is going on? See, I'm full of contradictions. I just quickly wanted to share a revelation with you. When I took cupcakes to my son's class for his birthday celebration, I wanted to make sure that everyone had a treat. There are two kids in his class who are vegan. I have always felt bad for them at celebrations when they have to sit there and watch everyone else eat cupcakes and other treats. I didn't have time to go all out with an elaborate vegan dessert creation, but I did have a couple of ripe bananas. Without a recipe, I mashed up the bananas and added some applesauce, oil and dry ingredients. For extra pizzazz, I dusted the tops with powdered sugar while they cooled. I called them banana cupcakes and everyone was happy. Even some of the non-vegan kids gobbled them up in lieu of the dairy laden salted caramel cream cheese muffins.

The banana muffin/cupcakes ended up turning out so tasty and moist, I decided to try and replicate them yesterday with a few ripe bananas I had. Oh my gosh, I think I'm going vegan (when it comes to banana muffins). They are so good! I know the word "vegan" may sound scary to some. Really, all it means is no eggs or dairy. Not a big deal. I decided that I can live without either in this recipe. I don't know how it happens, but they even have a buttery flavor. They are so easy to whip up with what you have on hand in your pantry. Let me confess, I should probably not be throwing around the word "vegan" as much as I am because this recipe contains honey. Depending how strictly one follows a vegan diet, honey is a no-no since it is made by animals. However, some vegans do eat raw, unprocessed honey for it's health benefits. If you are making these for a strict vegan, ask them their feelings on honey first.

I did not sugar the tops in this batch, but I did sprinkle pecans on half the batch just before baking. My favorite were the nutty ones, but my sons prefer the no-nut version. You could also sprinkle a few oats on top, or a cinnamon brown sugar topping. They are highly adaptable. And if you must, split one in half and butter it up!

Banana Muffins 

3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon honey*
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (plus maybe an extra teaspoon) water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper cups. In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas with a fork or potato masher. Stir in oil, applesauce, vanilla and honey. Add dry ingredients (sugar, oatmeal, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) followed by water. Stir until just mixed.

Spoon into muffin tin and sprinkle with nuts if desired. Bake for about 15 minutes. Edges should be slightly browned and tops nicely domed. Remove from oven and cool on a baking rack. Makes one dozen.

Tips and Tricks

• Use organic ingredients where possible for even more healthiness and no GMOs. In this recipe, I used organic everything except the oatmeal and vanilla.
• Whole wheat pastry flour is my best friend. I've found that it keeps baked goods nice and tender and doesn't impart too much of that "whole wheat flavor." Plus, it contains many more nutrients than plain white flour. Look in the health food section of a traditional grocery store or at Whole Foods or somewhere similar. You can use plain whole wheat flour as well, though it may yield a denser muffin. You can certainly sub with plain all-purpose flour if that's all you have.
• The honey in this recipe could easily be subbed for agave nectar or maple syrup for a strict vegan preparation.

Enjoy! If you try them, let me know how they turn out. I'm always happy to hear feedback.

(It's the Season for) Apple Peach Muffins

Fall is in the air (sort-of) here in Georgia, and the produce at my local farmers market is telling the tale. My favorite thing about this summer has been reconnecting with seasonal eating. A few years ago, I was one of those who didn’t pay much attention at the produce section of the grocery store. I would buy whatever I thought looked good without much concern about where it was from or whether or not it was in season. After quite a few tasteless winter tomatoes and increased awareness of the importance of eating locally and seasonally, all of that has changed.

The perfect treat for an in-between season.

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This summer I was also lucky enough to have the Grant Park Farmers Market open up less than two miles from my house. It has been wonderful meeting the farmers and food vendors and trying new things and getting reacquainting with foods from my childhood – like fresh field peas, butter beans and heirloom tomatoes.

As summer draws to a close and I spent the weekend watching documentaries and reflecting on the September 11, 2001 tragedy, this song (written by the legendary Pete Seeger) keeps going through my head …

For everything (turn, turn, turn)

There is a season (turn, turn, turn)

And a time to every purpose under Heaven.

Of course, the song is based on a passage from Ecclesiastes so I best not give Pete Seeger full credit for the lyrics. Life is full of seasons – sadness, joy, anger, gladness, longing and wholeness. I think I have experienced all of these feelings in the past few days. Soon we will be losing leaves, but gaining vibrant color and cooler temperatures. We’ll say goodbye to the tomatoes and green beans and hello to the sweet potatoes and Swiss chard. And we’ll say goodbye to the seasonal farmers markets (sniff, sniff).

For now, I am enjoying the promise of autumn. I’ve been cooking all kinds of things – even a sweet potato casserole the other day (which made it feel like Thanksgiving). But, what I want to share with you now are these muffins I whipped up this weekend. We recently went apple picking, which is one of my favorite fall things to do. Georgia is actually a major producer of apples.“Apple Alley,” as it’s called, is up near Ellijay about 90 minutes north of Atlanta. (I actually have an article about apple picking in this month’s Atlanta Parent for you local folks.)

I felt a bit like I was rushing the apple picking since the apples are just now coming in, but it was nice because the orchards were not crowded and there is already a good variety of apples to choose from. I definitely plan on going back once the Winesaps are in. They make excellent pies!

These muffins were not meant to be symbolic, but they kind of ended up that way the more I thought about them. They represent the end of summer’s offerings and the beginnings of fall’s harvest. Whip them up and enjoy with a cup of hot coffee or tea on a brisk fall morning. My six-year-old LOVED them (my 3-year-old, not so much).

Apple Peach Muffins with Crumb Topping

Muffin Ingredients

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour (I use white whole wheat for a milder flavor)

½ cup plain flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 small apples, peeled and chopped into ½ inch pieces (or smaller)

2 small peaches, peeled and chopped into ½ inch pieces (or smaller)

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted

½ cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons honey

½ cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons apple cider

2 eggs

Topping Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

2/3 cup quick or old-fashioned oats

2/3 cup plain flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease two 12-cup muffin tins. Stir dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon) together in a small mixing bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix together melted butter, sugar and honey until mostly smooth (there may be a few brown sugar clumps and that’s OK). Add ½ cup buttermilk, cider and eggs (one at a time). With a wooden spoon, slowly stir dry ingredients into wet mixture. Stir in chopped fruit until just blended. Spoon into the muffins tins, filling each a little more than half full.

In the bowl used for flour mixture (unless you want to dirty up another bowl), mix together softened butter, brown sugar, oats and flour to form a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle or spoon mixture on top of each muffin.

Place on top rack of oven. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned and a tooth pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out crumbly, but not gooey. Makes approximately 18 muffins.

Tips and Ideas:

• Use plain flour or all whole wheat flour if you'd like. You may need to adjust liquids to get the texture right.
• These muffins are chocked full of fruit. If you'd prefer more muffin/less fruit, hold back a little of the chopped fruit before dumping it all in to see if the consistency is right for you.
• Try all apple or all peach or other fruit combos if you'd like. 
• For more of a streusel topping, add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the topping. If you run out of topping as you are spooning it on the unbaked muffins, make another half recipe of the topping. It's easy!

What are you looking forward to most about fall? Your comments and feedback make my day!

May Madness Muffins

Is May already half over? I can't believe it! I feel crazed and stressed out with school festivities, birthday parties (it seems like there have been a million lately), t-ball games and countless other things. We’re also trying to move our boys into the same room together, conquer some big household repairs and improvements, and I’m on a tight deadline for an editing project I’m working on. So much to do, so little time!

May also hits me especially hard because of Mother’s Day, which is bittersweet for me, and my mom’s birthday which was this past Friday the 13th. She would have been 60. Needless to say, she’s been on my mind lately. On May 23, which is ironically my dad’s birthday, I’m going to guest post on Frosting for the Cause – a really cool project joining food bloggers and women’s cancer awareness. I’m working on what to bake and sharing a bit of her story – so stay tuned.

In the midst of all the craziness, I have still been cooking, though not so creatively. Tonight, it was our weekly pasta. However, I did mess around this weekend and whip up some pretty tasty bran muffins. I remember my mom going on health kicks from time to time – making bran muffins and carob brownies (that didn’t go over so well if I remember correctly). I also used to beg for tastes of her Tab, SlimFast shakes, no-fat artificially sweetened pudding and other gawd-awful diet food concoctions. Of course, that was the 80s and we know a lot more about nutrition now – or do we? It seems that fad diets and diet plans never go out of style!

I’m trying to raise my to have a healthy relationship with food, but it’s hard with ads for Toaster Strudels (with real fruit), Frosted Mini-Wheats (that help you think) and all kinds of other highly processed foods are advertised as “nutritious.” It has been handy to have these muffins around the last couple of days for a quick go-to breakfast. They are so easy to make, made of real foods, packed full of fiber and pretty tasty. My boys have gobbled them up. I think I’m going to make more this week and freeze. You can also easily adapt by adding nuts or changing up the dried fruit.

Orange Cranberry Bran Muffins
(Adapted from a bread recipe on my Bob’s Red Mill Wheat Bran package)

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I use white whole wheat for a milder flavor)
1 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup dried cranberries
1 egg
½ cup milk
1 cup orange juice
½ cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. honey (or another squeeze if you like your muffins on the sweet side)
Orange zest (a few scrapes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together dry ingredients (first 8 ingredients) and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together egg, milk, orange juice, oil, vanilla, honey and orange zest. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes or until firm and brown around the edges. Yields one dozen muffins.

Enjoy!