When it comes to birthdays, light, fluffy cakes seem to be the accepted treat of choice. This can take the form of a massive, multi-tiered production with elaborate fondant decorations or a simple selection of cupcakes with a delicate frosting swirl on top. That's what I thought I was going to do when I offered to bake a friend something for her birthday. However, after flipping through pictures from recipe books, she settled on a muffin, specifically a banana, oatmeal muffin. These dense, breakfast muffins are a healthier, and just as tasty alternative to the sugar coma inducing alternative.
Almost every banana baked good starts off with a bunch of overripe bananas that are then mushed into oblivion. While there are many ways to do this, fork, spoon, food processor, I prefer to use my hands. For one, it's way more fun. Who doesn't love squishing things? Anyway, here's the recipe:
Banana, Almond, Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins
(Modified from AllRecipes.com)
INGREDIENTS:
Banana, Almond, Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins
(Modified from AllRecipes.com)
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 t cinnemon
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed bananas
Slivered Almonds (optional)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 t cinnemon
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed bananas
Slivered Almonds (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350FCombine Dry Ingredients
Wisk egg. Add milk, oil, vanilla.
Add Bananas
Add Dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
Spoon into greased or lined muffin tin. Add almonds on top (optional)
Bake for 15-20 min
Cool.
Because this was a birthday treat, I decided to add some degree of sugar on top. The frosting is just a chocolate, cream cheese frosting.
This recipe is pretty good. However, I did somethings not in the recipe that I would advise against. For example, don't even think about adding the almonds or anything else for that matter inside the muffins. They are hearty enough as they are. Also, while everything is better with sugar, they don't really need the chocolate frosting on top.
In the dorms, there's no kitchen so these beauties were made at my brother's apartment. This is how I got them home. An additional piece of advice: don't frost the muffins and then transport them; transport them and then frost them. By the time I got up to my room, there was a chocolate massacre inside the 9x13 pan. They never looked this good again.
