Monday, January 22, 2007

Sugar Spot Banana Muffins




This is my second submission to Weekend Breakfast Blogging and it's another banana recipe. What can I say? I like bananas. And the name of the recipe -- "sugar spot" in reference to the little brown dots bananas get when they're sweet and ripe -- I couldn't resist.

I was hoping for something reminiscent of banana bread and that flavor is there, but this muffin has more of a healthy/hearty quality from the wheat germ than what you'd fine in a typical quick bread. Perhaps that's because I substituted regular wheat germ for the honey-crunch variety the recipe calls for. (I'm still surprised we even had wheat germ in the house, but I guess it's leftover from Martha's oatmeal cookies.)

The recipe is definately something I want to add to: here, I sprinkled a teaspoon of mini chocolate chips on half of the muffins before baking, but tossing in some flaked coconut would be nice too, I think. (I prefer the chocolate topped muffins to the naked ones -- big surprise.) Or, instead of chocolate or coconut, perhaps vanilla, cinnamon, and chopped pecans?


Sugar Spot Banana Muffins
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 large egg white
3/4 cup mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup fat-free milk
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (6 ounces)
2/3 cup honey-crunch wheat germ
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add banana and milk; beat well.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add to sugar mixture; beat just until moist.

Spoon batter evenly into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake for 22 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Cool in pan 5 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Place muffins on wire rack. Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 muffin)

Grade: B+

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a fun muffin!

Anonymous said...

Oh my...I'm sure you won't notice if I pick off one or two chocolate chips...or take a bite of the muffin...

Or just run away with the whole thing! :D Looks to-die-for!

Linda said...

yummy! looks delish! nice work.