Day 38: Banana Muffins

I got my birthday present from my hubby today! I know... My birthday isn't until June. Oh well.

After using that KitchenAid to make that cake, I announced I wanted one for my birthday. We went to Canadian Tire today, I poked my head into that aisle to get a feel for their pricing, and we discovered they were on sale. Like, more than a hundred dollars off the cheapest one. Hubby says he's been keeping an eye on them for awhile (he wanted one too) and he hasn't seen them that cheap, even at Costco in the States. So we debated, and deliberated, and walked around some more, and studied specs, and discussed, and bought one! We wanted the red Artisan series one, but we bought the black Classic series. The red one came with a pouring shield, a bigger bowl (5 qt instead of 4.5 qt), a handle on the bowl, and a cooler colour. For only $140 more... So we got the very sexy black one. I'm so okay with that.

So, only three months early, I got my birthday present!

Yesterday I pulled some bananas out of the freezer, and peeled them to make muffins, but then discovered I was out of baking soda. So before going home, we grabbed some baking soda, and then as soon as we got the brand new mixer home, I set it up and made muffins! Well, washed it first, of course...

It works like a dream. I swear, I have never had such an easy time making muffins. Or cookies, like I did right after. I am definitely going to be baking more now!

The muffins came out pretty well too! I used a normal recipe that I've made before, and subbed in that gluten-free flour blend that I made for the brownie testing. They had the same weird top as the brownies did, and now I'm wondering if that's a trademark of that flour.

Nothing weird in the recipe, besides flour, but that's always weird nowadays. The bowl in the picture is mashed, pre-frozen bananas. Appetizing colour, no? I do have to say though, I actually used four bananas, instead of the recommended three, because mine were more medium-sized than large, and I had coconut flour in it. Coconut flour tends to dry stuff out, so try to compensate with extra liquid. Here, an extra banana was the perfect amount.

You throw most of the dry ingredients together and then sift them. That's kind of important with this flour, because the coconut likes to clump.

All the wet ingredients and the sugar go in your shiny brand new stand mixer. Oh, sorry, maybe your less new mixer, or just a mixing bowl! Seriously, that paddle in that picture has never touched an ingredient!

And then you mix it, if that wasn't a given... Funny how this is really unappetizing. It's just sugar, butter, mashed banana and egg. It probably wouldn't taste that bad.

And then you fold in the flour mixture to the banana mixture, and mix. And bam! Banana muffin batter. Easy as eating them, right? Oh wait... I guess you have to bake them. This is where I usually mess up. I'm a pro at burning things.

But I didn't! They came out without any sticky bits or any burnt bits. The tops look a little odd, but they were delectable nonetheless. Hubby even ate one and commented on how good banana muffins are!

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin pans or use liners. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.