31.1.12

Banana, bran and blueberry muffins for a snowy day, or any day


B³ x 2 Muffins - and I'm no mathematician!

I wasn't expecting to make muffins this morning.  I had more useful things to do.  But then, I wasn't expecting it to snow either.  And here I am at 11.10 with a latte and a muffin, feeling warm inside and satisfied with my morning's work.  Taking the compost down to the end of the freezing garden and changing the batteries on the outside thermometer sensor, both of which will numb my fingers, can wait for another time.

It's a grey, soft and still morning.  The snow is there, like a fine mist and yet it's catching the leaves and turning them lacy.  The roads are not affected though, so I'll be good to go when I finally get out to do all the useful things postponed for the 3Bs.

Banana, Bran and Blueberries.  Good combination, and this recipe, adapted from one I found online (oh, why do I have so much difficulty in sticking to the originals?) has worked well.  My cousin arrives for a visit tomorrow.  I hope they last until then.  Factor Kit into the equation and we'll be lucky if even one or two survive for 24 hours.

The x3 also refers to the fact that the recipe requires three bowls (and therefore a dishwasher).

225 ml buttermilk (I always substitute with 1 cup ordinary milk to 4 tsp white vinegar)
85g wheat bran
1 egg
125g soft brown sugar, light or dark is fine
5 tabs olive oil
2 small ripe bananas, mashed *
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
85g wholemeal flour (self raising makes the muffins lighter)
60g fine porridge oats or oat bran 
1 tsp bicarb (or baking soda for our North American cooks!)
1 tsp baking powder
100g fresh or frozen blueberries

if you don't have or like blueberries, then try 100g chopped walnuts or raisins

In Bowl 1:  mix together sour milk and wheat bran and let sit for a few minutes so that the bran is absorbed by the liquid.

In Bowl 2:  beat together egg, sugar, oil, banana and vanilla.

In Bowl 3:  stir together flour, oats, bicarb and baking powder.  Add the contents of Bowl 3 to Bowl 1 and mix roughly then finally beat in Bowl 2 - well, not the bowl part, obviously.

Finally add the blueberries, nuts or raisins.

Bake in prepared muffin tins at 200º for about 20 minutes until done.  Makes 12.

I think it was Alex who told me about bananas and I imagine she might have got it from the Orangette link which you can check out from our home page, but it's fine to freeze the too-ripe-to-eat ones in a zip-top bag.  They go black but they defrost in minutes and slip out of their skins looking truly revolting and smelling strongly of overripe banana, but they're soft and mash well into any recipe and I have a freezer drawer full of frozen bananas so any further banana recipes would be welcomed by me.

And hey, I've killed two birds with one stone this morning as I've now got a picture for my 365Project!



2 comments:

  1. This looks like a hit - two people have commented on the my Facebook wall link to this post saying how delicious it sounds! Definitely comfort food for a cold day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I noticed that you have lots of yummy recipes on your page and I would like to suggest you have a look at our Top Food Blogs section here: http://www.alldishes.co.uk/top-food-blogs.

    If you want to add your food blog to the list and have your recipes indexed on Alldishes.co.uk, all you have to do is follow the instructions here: http://www.alldishes.co.uk/add-your-food-blog

    Hopefully hearing from you soon,

    Thanks,
    Sakkarin Sº
    info@alldishes.co.uk
    www.alldishes.co.uk

    ReplyDelete