Banana Pecan Muffins with a hint of…?

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What does one do when one brings home a cute little bunch of bananas from the Asian food market and only three are eaten?  It means that the menfolk in this house are trained to not eat something that looks suspiciously like it may end up in a recipe.  I’ve noticed they both have mouths, so I imagine they might ask from time to time about whether they can eat the food we have which is not yet cooked.

But no.

So the cute little bananas ended up in the fridge, slowly darkening, waiting for a recipe.  Waiting…

And you know I’m hunting for THE muffin.

These muffins were meant to be bread, but the 50 minute bake time wasn’t in my schedule and sharing convenience won over.

End of story.

Banana Pecan Muffins, anyone?

2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 stick unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/4 c. rolled oats
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. orange zest
6 tiny overripe (black) bananas, mashed
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1/4 c. dried, unsweetened coconut, unsulphured
1 c. plain low-fat yogurt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp mace

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, baking soda & powder with salt into a bowl.  Add the rolled oats.

In a large bowl, cream butter until it is soft. Add the sugar and beat in the eggs one at a time.   Mix until batter is well-combined.  Add the vanilla, orange zest, nuts and spices and stir to blend.

Add the flour mixture alternatively with the yogurt, mixing just until the dry ingredients are incorporated.  Pour the mixture into 18 large-sized muffin cups that have been lightly coated with cooking spray.  They should be about half full.

Cook for 20 minutes and lightly golden, inserting a knife to make sure the centers are done.

Enjoy with orange-flavored mascarpone cream.  But only once!

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Notes:  If you wish to make bread instead, use two 9-inch loaf pans.  I used a convection setting with two pans above a third in about the center of the oven.  The muffins rise quickly and smell quite yummy while cooking.  I chose not to use a mixer for this just to see how much work it would be considering my butter was straight from the fridge.  Did you know you can use a potato masher to cream the butter?  It works quite well!  Play around with the spices.  These do have a hit of the ginger in them, but overall are not as spicy as I thought they might be.  The coconut was an after though because I had it and figured it would be pleasant.  I’m not sure I can actually taste it, but I also successfully restrained myself from having only 1-1/2 over two days.

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As far as my perfect muffin quest goes, these are good, but there is quite a bit of sugar in them, and I don’t thing it’s necessary.  I shared them at the office (took all but four that my hunkster rescued from the batch) and they went fairly quickly, so I’d say they were not too bad.

The orange mascarpone is heavy cream whipped, then blended with 4 oz. mascarpone and a splash or two of orange extract.  It’s quite marvelous and worth making just to be completely decadent with not just these muffins and a great cup of tea, but French toast, pancakes, and any other thing you can come up with.

Oh, and I almost forgot — this recipe was inspired by one from a regional collection called A New England Table.  It’s unsigned, but the original included twice the butter, wheat germ, lemon, "other" fruit, no nuts or coconut, and 1 tsp. EACH of cinnamon, mace, ginger, and allspice which sort of made me wince, because most people don’t enjoy that much spice.  But the author swears her children and friends love it.  If you’re curious about the original recipe, let me know, and I’ll get it to you.

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