Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

I know I said previously that I just can't fall in love with Banana Bread, but there's a banana combination that I absolutely adore - Banana and Chocolate! It's all because of this wonderful cake that I shed 200 yen for in Jusco long ago - a whole banana wrapped in whipped cream and chocolate sponge cake . It was heaven, and it took all of my willpower not to succumb to the 200 yen temptation every time I was at the grocery store.

Well this recipe is far from that heavenly memory from long ago, but it combines two good things - banana and chocolate. I got the recipe from this thread in ChowHound.

The muffins were so dense they didn't rise much

The recipe had banana, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips. Sounds really good, right? I cut the sugar in the recipe to half, but the muffins still tasted sweet due to all the bananas in there. Speaking of bananas, I'm pretty sure I went overboard with the mashed banana, because I was desperate to keep them moist for more than a day. The result wasn't bad, but the muffins didn't rise much and they were very heavy, as commented by my co-worker, Ma'am Ruth.


Ma'am Jeng liked them, and I got comments that said they were full of flavor and had just the right sweetness (I thought they were too sweet). They weren't bad, but I think they were missing complexity of flavor. They didn't taste very chocolaty to me too :( If I'll make these again, I'll add some coffee powder, vanilla, and use the correct amount of mashed bananas!

Like Pancake in a Muffin ⇒ Sour Cream Muffins

Early this morning while I was between dreaming and being woken up by the blast from the TV morning mass, my mind was in overdrive thinking what to do with the leftover Nestle cream from the cheesecake I made the previous night. Use it as ganache for the whole wheat chocolate cake I've been meaning to try? Cookies? I'm sure about half a dozen possibilities came to me, but just before we set out to go for the mass (the real one), I settled on making the Sour Cream Muffins from my King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book.


So I removed the cream and the eggs from the fridge right before we went out, so when I came back, the cream was no longer thick and both the eggs and cream were in room temperature. Then I decided to do the cream + lemon juice = sour cream substitute trick in earnest. I didn't think I did it well enough last time, but the conditions were perfect this morning because I had lots of time, the cream was room temperature, and it was very warm in the kitchen. I squeezed in about 5 pieces of calamansi juice, stirred the mixture, and left it alone... after about 20 minutes or so, I was surprised that the cream actually curdled!! I'm not sure if it's real curdling I saw, but the cream did get thick, and it smelled sour. I was very pleased with the result. However, I was not pleased at all when I noticed halfway through sifting the flour that I only had 1/2 cup of sour cream! I needed 1 cup, especially after I had already measured and mixed the required amounts of flour and baking soda! This was my fault for being a dummy and not preparing ingredients in advance.

Already my mind was in overdrive, but thankfully all the baking blog reading paid off - because I found the good sense to substitute instead the pack of yogurt I had left in the fridge (thank goodness I bought 2 yesterday!), then to increase the butter to compensate for the lost fat. Well originally I was planning to use 1/3 cup of butter instead of 1/2 cup (basically what I had left of a package after the PB muffins and cheesecake) but I didn't want to risk it so I used up part of an unopened package of butter to come up with roughly 1/2 cup of butter. Not too bad; it still has less fat than the original. I also subbed Whole Wheat Pastry Flour instead of White Whole Wheat, and I can't say the change had a negative impact.

the first batch didn't puff up much

The original recipe called for mixing in berries or chopped stone fruits, such as peaches. Well, no berries here, and I didn't want to open the can of peaches in light syrup I bought 'cause I'm reserving that for peach pie. We, however, had bananas, grapes, oranges, one Granny Smith, and a bunch of Fuji(?) apples in the house. Apples aren't stone fruits after all, but I decided to try my luck with a chopped Fuji and Granny Smith, then tossed in some nuts for good measure. I made sure to toss them in a bit of flour before mixing into the batter.

I creamed the still-cold butter and sugar (2/3 cup) using my hand mixer, and I think it went well, even though I did the creaming in the warm kitchen. Everything went smoothly from there, except that at the VERY END, I found out that the batter had to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes - the one time I've preheated the oven for good measure, it wasn't needed at all! Arggh! Well I wasn't about to let the electricity get wasted more than it already was, so I popped in the muffins without the fridge rest. I don't mind the texture of bran, anyway. There was quite a lot of leftover batter that made 4 big muffins with my extra muffin pan, and that went chilling in the fridge.

I was hoping for the best, even though I was concerned that the recipe called for only 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, so the chilling might affect the rise. In fact, I think it did, because my first batch of muffins didn't get a nice high mound on top unlike my 2nd batch, though I'm suspecting the nonstick pan might also have a part, because I always get ridiculously high rises and mounds when using that pan.

The taste, however, was heavenly. They smelled really nice coming right out of the oven, and when Daddy and I digged into the first one, oh, it was heaven! Moist and creamy and delicious! Didn't taste sour at all, despite being made from sour cream. Hands down the best muffin I've made to date. It kinda smelled and tasted like pancakes, and the apples carried themselves quite well, considering. They also got the thumbs up from my Mom, because they were not too sweet. The batter really is versatile - you could probably toss in just about anything in there and it would still be delicious. This muffin is a certified BAKING SUCCESS!! :D No wonder the King Arthur Flour bakers placed the recipe first, and were singing praises about it!

big brother muffin with puffed tops, and little sister muffins

Of course, there are always a few notes to consider when baking next time:

1) Prepare all ingredients beforehand!
2) DO NOT preheat the oven.
3) Make sure the cream and eggs are at room temperature before starting, or curdle the cream in advance.
4) Make sure to prepare 1 cup of sour cream + juice of about 8 calamansi
5) Fill the muffins almost to the brim (but not too densely) to get a nice high top.
6) Should I consider getting an ice cream scoop to put the batter in? It's getting to be a pain...
7) Brush the muffin liners with vegetable oil way in advance, or maybe while the batter is chilling. It does help keep the muffins intact.

All in all, this muffin recipe is definitely a keeper!!! :)

soft, creamy, moist crumb

Taking over REESE ⇒ Peanut Butter Muffins

Last Friday, I was seriously itching to bake something to bring to Nyan's house. I don't know how it happened that I have a ton of ingredients at home and NOTHING to bake - there was always some stray ingredient or so that prevented me from trying out the recipe. I consulted my numerous books and finally decided on a recipe that could be cobbled up pretty quickly and whose ingredients I already had in the pantry or could be bought quickly at the local supermarket. The recipe was PEANUT BUTTER MUFFINS, courtesy of the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book.


The recipe called for buttermilk, and I had just bought a bag powdered buttermilk from Chocolate Lover so I was eager to use it. But I was a bit dismayed after I mixed in the powder and tasted it - it tasted just like regular, cheap skimmed milk!! What's the the difference between the buttermilk powder and Bear Brand? It didn't even taste sour. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt so even if I was dubious, I poured it in.

I had leftover chocolate chips in the fridge and a can of honey-roasted peanuts and cashews lying around the house, so I crushed those and tossed them in the batter (lightly floured, of course).

The recipe said that the muffins were supposed to be moist and crumbly-ethereal from the buttermilk and whole wheat pastry flour, but they didn't seem that moist to me. They were crumbly, though. Not dry, but not my idea of moist, either. Surprisingly, even after all the peanut butter, it wasn't so sweet (I used half the amount of sugar required). Must be the brand of PB I was using. I was worried picky eaters who need their sugar high won't like them, so I quickly whipped up the accompanying peanut butter glaze, but using only 2 tsp of confectioner's sugar instead of 3 tsp. The glaze was sweet enough, and I drizzled that over the muffin tops as decoratively as I could.


Nyan said that it was like biting into a Reese peanut butter muffin. She asked if I made the glaze myself. Ate Nhor said it was ok and not too sweet, but she could taste the baking soda. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I've mixed up 1 tbsp of baking soda for 1 tsp... gotta be careful, though my palate isn't sophisticated enough to detect the baking soda?

Will I be making these again? Probably, if I find myself with an abundance of peanut butter. But next time, I'll probably just use the milk + calamansi juice = curdled milk sub, instead of the dubious buttermilk powder. Or maybe it's time to look for the PROPER buttermilk powder manufactured by SACO.

crumbly crumb