Vegan Mocha Banana Muffins

I'm not a photographer, so my apologies for the cellphone photo, with its double-papered muffin. I bet you'll like the muffin itself, which doesn't normally survive long enough to have its image captured. This is based on the Edna Staebler recipe, with a fair bit of tweaking, and a wee bit of caffeine.

1 cup of ripe, mashed bananas
1/3 cup oil or melted fat of your choice
1/3 cup sugar - or 1/2 cup if you like things sweeter
1 TB flax + 3 TB water, mix and microwave until gel-ish. Or one egg.
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp instant coffee or espresso powder. More if you like!
1 1/4 cups flour - I like white whole wheat, or use all purpose.
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Mash the bananas, by hand or with a stand mixer. Add oil, sugar, vanilla, flax and water mixture, and the coffee/espresso powder. Mix well.

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together. Pushing the soda through a mesh sieve helps avoid salty clumps. Stir in chocolate chips.

Dump dry ingredients into wet, stirring just to mix, and scoop into muffin tins, or mini muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Makes 8 muffins, or 12 small-ish ones.

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True to blog name, I managed to leave the coffee out, and the muffins were still tasty, but they're just better with it. I ended up mixing about 2 TB of coconut oil, a tsp of instant coffee, a couple TB of cocoa, about 2 tsp of milk (plain almond Silk), and powdered sugar (I didn't measure) to make a glaze to add some coffee flavor. It also looks sort of decorative, if you're trying to impress someone.

Banana Muffins a la Edna Staebler

I'm sure everyone's familiar with the concept of food porn, but imagine, for a minute, a book full of useful, practical, adaptable recipes, rather than fanciful pictures of cupcakes and things with sauce dribbled over them. More like a food Sunday Night Sex Show, which isn't a phrase I can see catching on soon. Maybe it's not pretty, but it's helpful, and you can use the information at home tonight.

I'm not sure she'd appreciate the comparison, but Edna Staebler wrote that sort of cookbook. Initially she was a journalist, and then she ended up collecting recipes, wrote a couple books, and lived to 100 on good Mennonite cooking. The Schmecks books have been reprinted, and are available on Amazon, but there were also a series of small, themed books you might still be able to find, though probably not in the US. Just as a sample, here's her recipe for Very Ripe Banana Muffins, with my edits. Make a batch in mini muffin tins, and toddlers will swarm like seagulls.

1 cup of ripe, mashed bananas
1/3 cup oil or melted fat of your choice
1/4-1/2 cup sugar - I prefer the lesser amount, but she liked her muffins sweet
1 tsp salt, or a pinch
1 egg, well beaten, or a flax egg*
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups flour - all purpose, or white whole wheat. It's all good.
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 chopped nuts or chocolate chips, if you want 'em

Mash the bananas. Putting all the ripe bananas on your counter into a Kitchenaid with the paddle attachment is pretty satisfying. Add the oil, sugar, and salt, keep mixing, then add the egg and vanilla, and mix again. Mix the flour, soda and powder, adding nuts or chips if you want, and mix into the wet stuff, just blending, not beating.

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes (depending on the muffin tin size). She suggest letting them cool only slightly and serving with tea. That's good advice.

* 1 TB of ground flax + 3 TB of water, zapped until gel-ish = 1 egg. Great for veganizing things, or if you're low on groceries.