Muffins are the easiest thing, ever, to make.
Pies and galettes are up there, as is a simple quick pudding and all, and pancakes aren’t half bad either. But muffins… yeah. No electric equipment, one or two bowls, and a hot oven. Yum.
This morning we New Yorkers awoke again to the kind of weather that freezes your face off; no matter the layering or quickness of step, by the time I got in from walking Mitra I could have rather easily snapped the frozen nose off of my face. Directly into the kitchen for hot tea and eggs, my eyes set on three blackened bananas I’d left waiting to be pureed into something sweet. My roommate – who took the rare day off – was still sleeping. I already had chicken stock simmering on the stove, and a day’s pitching pieces and transcribing interviews ahead. Yet there were those bananas.
Within fifteen minutes, I was pouring batter into six oversized muffin tins and, shortly after, gently guiding them into the oven. My apartment smelled like toasted pecans, browned butter and dark muscovado sugar. If anything could get the roommate up and me to my desk, I had a feeling the muffins could do it. 30 minutes later, we dove our fingers into the hot muffins, bursting with mapley sugar and moistened by the bananas.
The recipe below is rather adaptable. Don’t like pecans? Throw in another nut, or omit completely. Not a fan of molasses? Substitute the dark muscovado sugar for light brown. These are just sweet enough, but if you like your muffins bursting with sugar, throw in another few ounces.
Yes, I weigh almost everything out. It’s faster, easier, cleaner and far more accurate that way, especially in gluten-free baking. Scales are inexpensive and easy to use. I highly, highly recommend them.
Back to transcribing, pitching, and somehow getting more towels and drapes nestled around my window frames because, damn, it’s cold in New York City today.
Happy Friday,
– Jacqueline
{gluten-free} Nutty Banana Streusel Muffins
Ingredients:
- 8Tbsp / 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup nuts (I used 1/4 cup each of pecans and walnuts)
- 8oz gluten-free cookie flour blend (or, if you mix your flours, I’d say 2 oz each of three kinds of flour and 2oz starch, plus 1/2 tsp xanthan gum)
- 4oz white sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
- 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas – mine were literally black on the outside)
- 6oz milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
- 3 Tbsp muscovado or dark / light brown sugar
Heat your oven to 375D, and spray muffin tins lightly with spray / grease with shortening.
Place nuts on a cookie sheet and put in warming oven, toasting until they’re fragrant and nutty, about 12 minutes.
Melt the butter: You can do this as you normally would in a saucepan or microwave dish, or take it one step further and brown the butter by putting it in a Pyrex measuring cup or heat-safe bowl, covering it with another heat-safe plate or bowl, and microwaving for 4-5 minutes. This will brown the butter, making it wonderfully nutty and golden, which will add further dimension to the bananas. Either way, let it cool slightly before using.
In a small bowl, combine the toasted nuts, 1 Tbsp of the melted/browned butter and 3 Tbsp brown sugar, pressing together with a fork or fingers until crumbly.
In a large bowl, weigh out your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, whisking well to combine. Add the bananas, beaten eggs, milk and remaining melted butter, and mix until combined but rather lumpy.
Fill baking cups 1/3 of the way, then sprinkle with 1/2 of the nut mix. Fill with remaining batter, and sprinkle with remaining nut mix.
Bake for 18 minutes for standard muffins, 30 for oversized.
Flipping them slightly from their tins when they come out of the oven, as pictured, helps the bottoms stop cooking and the muffins to not collapse.
The Dusty Baker 
Those look beautiful!
Thos r looking very very nice.