Last week I decided life could only improve with an injection of banana muffins. My mum used to* make fantastic banana muffins that always came out perfectly. They had the moist crumb, soft burst of vanilla-soaked sultanas and small pockets of banana that could have declared peace in the Middle East. The key ingredient -- the one that made these muffins monumental -- was bran.
It boggles my mind, too. But you just try making these muffins with oat or spelt and see what you land up with.
Bran. Its name alone seems to suggest bran isn't all that fond of itself. You can see it at GrainCon: it would sneak in, all fibrous and depressed. 'Hi, I'm bran,' it would say to quinoa or sorghum. 'I'm as boring as I sound. Bran. Is there a bowl of milk lying around? I'm even worse soggy.'
All the other grains would be torn between pointing and laughing and throwing up a little in their little grainy mouths in revolution.
But just as bran was about to make a leap for the lactic deep, banana would come in, all mottled and yellow. All the other grains would be clambering for banana's attention, striking poses and shouting, 'Pick me, pick me!' but banana would stop short, the way a Christy Turlington would stop short at the sight of Danny Devito, and it would be love at first sight. You see, banana sees through the bland exterior to the warmth and quiet intelligence of bran inside. And theirs is a marriage of awesome.
This recipe only makes a small batch, because sometimes all you want is that short sweet hit of muffiny delish.
ingredients:
3/4 c. plain white whole wheat flour
1/2 c. bran
1/4 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/4 cup (soya) milk
1/3 cup vegan margarine (or butter), melted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. sultanas
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 c. dark chocolate, chopped
method:
Leave your sultanas overnight soaking just covered in a bowl of water, sprinkled over with a tsp. vanilla or the seeds of a vanilla pod, plus 1 tsp. brown sugar. (If you're feeling naughty, rum works very nicely here, too.)
In a smallish saucepan, melt the margarine over low heat, taking care not to let it burn. Remove from the heat and leave it to cool while you combine the flour, bran, baking powder and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. (If you fancy Banana Chocolate Bran Muffins, change the amount of flour to 1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp. and add 2 tbsp. cocoa powder.)
To save on washing up, whisk the banana, milk, sugar and vanilla in with the margarine (otherwise just use a small mixing bowl), then add to the dry ingredients and combine until just smooth. Fold in the extras (dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, what have you).
I used a lightly greased, standard muffin tin (6) and two ramekins to bake my muffins, filled about 2/3 full with batter. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 F/6 Gas for 20--25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Lovely.
* 'Used to' is because since my parents moved back over here, my mum has decided that she would never be able to replicate anything she used to make in Canada, so she wouldn't even bother. Why? Because the ingredients are all wrong. Not different and thus adaptable, but generally all wrong and thus wrong. Funnily enough, the same thing happened when she moved over to Canada 35 years ago. It took her years to master all those strange Canadian ingredients, like slightly more refined flour and slightly less-fat milk. YEARS. Now she's back in the land of flour as fine as troll dandruff and butter-thick milk, she's literally having to start all over again. All those tried-and-true recipes have gone the way of the dodo while she navigates the strange terrain of the British supermarket.
(And don't even get her started on this peculiar British obsession with teeny tiny tins of tomato. Everyone knows you need your tins of tomato to be at least a kilo if you're expecting your pasta sauce to be in any way decent! Jesus! Anyone would think the British are trying to accommodate the lack of space in their pitifully small kitchens.)
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