Strawberry-Banana Muffins

In the past week, Kristin and I had a great problem: too many strawberries.  We'd bought some at the grocery store, and then Kristin's mom gave us a whole ton of them from a local fruit farm.  Even the grocery store ones were great, but the local berries were just fantastic - juicy and sweet and just slightly tart.  The trouble was that we just had altogether too many of them.

We decided we ought to bake something, and went out in search of interesting recipes.  We found a couple of strawberry-banana things - a bread and some muffins, in particular.  Neither recipe seemed quite ideal, though.  So finally, we decided to stick with what we know is good.  We adapted my family's trusty Banana Bread and it turned out so, so well.  The muffins were soft, moist, and wonderfully flavorful.  Now I can't wait 'til we have too many strawberries again so we can make another batch.

Here's what we used: flour, sugar, strawberries, bananas, baking powder, baking soda, eggs, margarine, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.

First, you'll need to create the ever-photogenic bowl of white powder.  Mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.

In a second, larger bowl, combine the margarine, egg whites, sugar, bananas, and vanilla.  Mash up the bananas with a large spoon, potato masher, or other weapon of choice until they're pretty well distributed through the rest, but still chunky.  The mashing and smashing should do pretty well at mixing the rest, but give it an extra stir to be sure.

Pour the dry bowl into the wet and mix well to combine.

Chop your strawberries down into nice small pieces.  We ended up using somewhere between 1 1/2 and 2 cups of chopped berries, all told, and even a tad more could still have worked fine.

Gently fold the strawberries into the batter, and you're ready to go.

Fill greased, un-lined muffin tins about 2/3 full with batter.  We initially used the muffin tins un-lined because we (mistakenly) thought we were out of muffin cups.  It ended up that we weren't, but I think this is still the best way to go, here.  The muffins are so moist that I think they would really stick to muffin cups and you would pull off a lot of the outside when removing the wrapper.  This way, you get maximum muffin.

Bake the muffins for 16-20 minutes at 350 degrees.  18 minutes on the nose did it for us.

Let them cool for 5-10 minutes before you take them out of the muffin tins, then devour promptly.

Recipe: Strawberry-Banana Muffins
Prep Time: 10 Minutes | Cook Time: 20 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 18 Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 3 Egg Whites
• 1/2 cup Margarine, melted
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 3-4 ripe Bananas
• 2 cups fresh Strawberries, diced

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease muffin tins.
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. In a large bowl, sugar, margarine, egg whites, vanilla, and bananas.  Mash bananas with a potato masher or heavy spoon until thoroughly mixed.
4. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well.
5. Dice strawberries and gently fold into batter until well distributed.
6. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full with batter.
7. Bake 16-20 minutes until brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool 5-10 minutes in muffin tins before serving.

Dad's Banana Bread

This is the banana bread I  grew up with.  At home, the recipe is an ancient computer print-out, folded in half, stained with various spilled ingredients.  I cannot even imagine what would have happened if that recipe had ever come to harm or been lost.  It certainly ought to qualify for "family heirloom" status.  I considered it a significant step on the path to adulthood when I got a copy of the recipe from my dad.

This banana bread has ruined me for all other banana bread.  It took me a long time to come to grips with this.  I grew up loving banana bread, because this is the only kind I ever ate.  I always just assumed that all banana bread was this good.  Alas, it's not.  Other banana breads inevitably disappoint.

This recipe will make all other banana breads pale in comparison.  You will never again be satisfied by just any old recipe.  Is it worth it?  Oh yeah.

Here's what goes into it.  On the dry side: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.  The cloves are a big part of the magic - every time I smell them my mind leaps right to this bread and my mouth starts watering.

The wet stuff is sugar, egg whites, margarine, bananas, and vanilla.  There's a strict three-banana minimum, but four-ish is to be preferred.  As always, the gushier and better-ripened the bananas, the better.  Mine weren't nearly as gushy as is ideal, but I'm impatient.  If you knew how good this bread is, you wouldn't want to wait a few more days for it either.

First, mix the dry stuff in a medium mixing bowl.



I think I'll submit this shot to some juried shows.  I call it "Dry."

Next, the fun part.  Mix up all that wet stuff.  Break the bananas up on their way into the bowl, then give them a good smashing.  Not too fine, mind you - part of the magic of the bread is that there are some nice gooey banana bits intermixed.  I use the back of a slotted spoon and it comes out just about perfect.

When the wet stuff looks about like this, you're ready to move on.  Forget about "mix well."  If ever there were a time to "mix poorly," this is it.

Now dump your dry bowl into the wet.  This time, mix well and make sure everything is nicely combined.  You could probably just eat the batter from a spoon at this point.  It's worth baking, though, trust me.  Do feel free to like the spatula, though, if raw egg whites don't creep you out too much.

Pour that beautiful batter into a greased bundt pan.  I can't use a bundt pan without paying tiny homage to the "It's a bundt!" scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  Don't judge me.

The batter will look tiny and insignificant compared to the power of the force  down there in the pan, but don't worry.  It will grow up big and strong with the help of a 350 degree oven.

See!  35-40 minutes at 350 brings you this beautiful creature.  Baking time can vary quite a bit, since you're working with fruit at varying levels of ripeness (and therefore water content and chemical composition).  Check at 35 minutes, but it usually takes about 40 to reach that perfect color.

Flip out of the bundt pan onto a plate and let cool for 10 minutes or so before serving.  This will be the longest 10 minutes of your day, because that smell is a killer.  Slice and serve when you can no longer stand it.

If you want to profane the beauty of your creation, I suppose you could spread some butter on it.  But, really: don't.  This recipe will be perfectly moist and flavorful without any such desecration.  However, it is overwhelmingly likely that you'll never enjoy any other banana bread quite the same way again.

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Recipe: Dad's Banana Bread

Prep Time: 10 minutes   |   Cook Time: 35-40 Minutes   |   Difficulty: Easy   |   Servings: 4-6.

Ingredients

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1.5 tsp Baking Powder
• .5 tsp Baking Soda
• .5 tsp cinnamon
• .5 tsp cloves
• Pinch Salt
• 3 Egg Whites
• .5 cup Margarine, melted
• 1 cup Sugar
• 3-4 ripe bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a bundt pan.

Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl.  Increase cinnamon and cloves to a full teaspoon if desired.  Set aside.

In large bowl, mix margarine, egg whites, sugar, bananas, and vanilla.  Mash bananas and mix until still chunky.

Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients, and mix well.

Bake in greased bundt for 35-40 min at 350 degrees.  Let stand 10 minutes to cool.  Devour.