Banana Muffins

The more one knows about cooking, the more free one feels to experiment and create concoctions in the style of "the contents of my fridge". Thus today I mixed a batch of banana muffins and they turned out so delicious, that I decided to write down the recipe for further reference.

What I had were a  bunch of bananas, that according to husband were not very tasty, some open cup of yogurt and chocolate chips, and of course, flour, eggs, sunflower oil and other household staples.

 Ingredients:

• 1 average banana
• 1 egg
• 60 g sunflower oil
• 50 g sugar + a pinch of salt
• 100 g yogurt
• 200 g flour
• 8 g baking powder
• vanilla extract
• chocolate chips 

 Preparation:

Mash the banana, add the egg, the oil, the yogurt, the sugar and a pinch of salt and mix. Fold in the flour with the baking powder. Add the vanilla extract and stir in the chocolate chips. Distribute the batter into 12 muffin forms and bake in a preheated oven at 190C until golden.

The resulting muffins are very fluffy and the semi-sweetness (only 50 g sugar) allows the taste buds fully to appreciate the distinct banana taste and the bitter-sweet flavour of the chocolate chips, a classic and timeless combination.

Best enjoyed with a cup of freshly brewed hot coffee or tea. 

Baking

Yesterday I had already made some rice pudding for dessert, when I read the recipe for banana cup-cakes Kepanie published on Knitspiring Odyssey.

Wow, these cup-cakes are something! So airy, so fluffy and they just melt in the mouth, and the taste of bananas is so strong. This is the first time I'm using milk with vinegar and I admit I had to ask in my favourite cooking forum if the recipe was OK, as I had never encountered this method of rising the patty.

The recipe yields two dozens of cup-cakes. My modifications - I used dairy butter instead of shortening and I added less that a full second cup of flour - I stopped adding the flour when the texture of the patty was dense enough, so my flour was about 1/3 of the second cup less that the recipe stipulates. If you're a cup-cake fan, definitely go check that recipe :)

And today I made these Japanese rolls with butter. The original recipe was published in a Japanese cooking site, I saw it interpreted in my favourite Bulgarian cooking forum - labrex is my cooking guru again. However I deviated a bit from the recipe, adding milk and egg to the dough for richer taste and omitting the garlic, as I have a very strong aversion to it (though I'm sure I'm not a vampire lol :))
Ingredients: 400 g flour, 100 ml milk, 150 ml water, 1 egg, 20 ml olive oil with rosemary, 7 g dry yeast, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, dry savory and dry basil.

Mix the ingredients and make dough. Cut and form into 8 rolls. Place on a baking tin, cover with a cloth and let the dough rise.

After the rolls have doubled their volume, make a cut in each roll and place a strip of butter (if you like garlic, you can use garlic flavoured butter).

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C. Serve warm with cheese and tomato salad, butter and mixed spices or any other way you prefer fresh bread.

I must start jogging or something, I'm gaining weight with all that baking :)))