Not entirely local

But a nice variation from my usual banana bread recipe. I've tried just replacing the regular flour with whole wheat flour and haven't been happy with the results. A friend lent me her cookbook and this recipe is from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I think I'll have to get this cookbook for myself.

Banana Muffins (or Bread)

350 degree oven
1 loaf or 12+ muffins
50 min for loaf, 18-25 for muffins

1/2 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c (about three medium) mashed overripe bananas
1/4 c honey
2 eggs
2 c whole wheat flour (I used ww pastry flour but it calls for regular ww flour)
1/2 c nuts or chocolate chips if desired

Mix until smooth.

Here is what the directions say to do for bread:

Put into pan and let rest at room temp for 10 min. (I didn't do this and it was fine). Bake until cake tester comes out clean - about 50 minutes. Then cover with foil and bake another 10-15 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes then turn onto a rack to cool completely.

For muffins: Bake until the tester comes out clean. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes and turn out onto cooling rack.

Yummmmm. These were very sweet.

I make the muffins small and freeze them for Sam's lunches and snacks.

Chocolate Beet Muffins

Yes, you read that correctly! I really try to use most of the things we get in the share prior to receiving the next share. Last night Ben broiled some pork chops and made a maple syrup reduction to put over them...excellent! While he was messing with that I made a turnip slaw subbing turnips for beets in this recipe. But I still had some beets left so I cooked those up and pureed them.

I thought I could make a beet muffin of some sort, something nice and red but when I started digging around the internet I didn't find any recipes for beet bread or beet muffins except for a recipe for Double Chocolate Beet Muffins.

Of course I didn't follow the recipe completely for several reasons. One reason for that is because it sounded a tad fussy for a muffin, then of course I didn't have all the ingredients, and lastly, I had more beets than I needed so I did my usual modifications. The recipe below shows what I actually used.

While they were baking a very unappetizing odor was coming from the oven but apparently it wasn't from the muffins. Ben later told me "Oh, that was the potato I dropped in the oven yesterday." I looked in the oven before I started and didn't see the potato but the ones we ate last night were tiny.


Chocolate Beet Muffins
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Makes 18 medium muffins and an addition 24 baby sized muffins but I don't like them overfilled because I put them in Sam's lunch so these are smallish muffins. Make them larger if you wish.

1 1/2 C. whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
6 T cocoa
1/2 C butter
1 c chocolate chips
1 1/4 c packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c beet puree
1 c yogurt
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Grease muffin tins or line with paper cups
Melt the butter with the cocoa. Add to mixing bowl. Add beet puree, eggs, yogurt, brown sugar, and vanilla. Mix in the salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Fold in the remaining ingredients.

Place muffin pan in a preheated 375 oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Muffins are done when they spring back when touched lightly in the center. Don’t overbake!

Verdict: Excellent! All the way around. Three thumbs up (or six if we each do two)