How Far Is 'Until Combined'?

This morning’s planned sleep in failed to eventuate.  At 7.30am I was alive and kicking and knew that I had a quiet morning all to myself (BF got home in the wee hours of the morning so wouldn’t be arising until the pm).  What to do, what to do?  My To Do list is a mile long, but as tackling it would involve me getting out of my PJs, I decided to make muffins instead. 

I searched around for a muffin recipe for which all ingredients were already in the pantry and came across Banana and Coconut Muffins.

My end result

INGREDIENTS:

·         1 ¼ C all-purpose flour

·         1 t baking powder

·         ¼ t salt

·         2 very ripe bananas, mashed

·         ½ C melted butter

·         2/3 C sugar

·         1 large egg

·         ½ t vanilla

·         ¾ C sweetened flaked coconut

METHOD:

1.       Preheat oven to 190°C with the oven rack in the middle

2.       Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl

3.       Whisk together bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and ½ C coconut in a large bowl and combine well.

4.       Fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened

5.       Divide batter among muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining ¼ C of coconut.

6.       Bake until muffins are puffed and golden, about 25 minutes

My Notes: Recipe reviews suggested adding lemon zest and a bit of milk, so I did.  I used one brown and one perfectly ripe banana, and used brown sugar instead of white and halved the amount. 

I only had unsweetened coconut and decided to include all the coconut in the mixture instead of sprinkling it on top because when I make muesli with coconut it usually burns if it’s in the oven for too long.

I also added about ¾ C of plain yoghurt.  I’d read somewhere that adding yoghurt to baking helps it stay moist so thought I’d try it – I hate dry muffins.

Whenever a recipe calls for ‘fold until just combined’ I get a little intimidated – it’s a fine line between too little and too much combination.  I think I got it right though.

Left: Not quite there          Right: Just right?

My muffins started going brown at the 15 minute mark so I reduced the oven temperature to about 150°C for the last 10 minutes.



Before and After (what burnt ones?)

The end result was a very moist, very banana-y muffin – perfect with a coffee on a Saturday morning.   The evidence of any brown muffins was quickly disposed of in the most secure location I could think of – my tummy. 

Next time I think I would go with just one banana (brown/over ripe), keep the yoghurt, maybe add some rolled oats (quick whizz in the blender) instead of some of the flour and perhaps some coconut milk instead of normal milk to make the coconut flavour stronger.   That, plus the Financial Times weekend edition and a coffee on the balcony.  Tough life!

Note to BF: the left over muffins are in the container on top of the rolled oats in case you’re feeling a little worse for wear when you wake up J