Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Banana Muffins!

As I was posting my Thai Green Curry recipe, I could smell the rotting bananas on the dining table. Bananas have a strong smell and taste and I wanted to get rid of them somehow. I love bananas. They always bring back one memory for me. Of my paternal grandfather who is no more. From the time I was a baby, he fed me bananas :) We had this huge house in the center of the city. My grandfather would worship the Gods and his mother's photo(!) every morning and serve juice and bananas to all the kids around the area. Some of these kids were street urchins. In fact, my sisters and I were asked to serve juice and hand out bananas to these kids. After this ritual, he'd go on to dress up and leave home for work. When he came back for lunch, irrespective of whether I'd eaten or not, he'd feed me bananas. He'd make sure I ate them. He'd stuff them in my mouth and I loved them! These bananas were generally the over-ripe ones, with the black spots on the bananas :) I still love them that way. I treasure this particular memory of mine with him. I feel proud to date that I ate these almost rotten bananas while the same ritual with my ever-particular sis turned out to be a failure ;) I was proud that I was closer to my Granddad this way. Frankly, I no longer remember him that well. Except for very ripe bananas, chillies in his food (which makes me tolerant to very spicy food), the flowers he used to bring, so all of us could tie it up for God the next day, his generosity with those street kids, him making me write all the words I knew with all the letters in the alphabet. Aaah, memories... So, this banana muffin post really goes to my Granddad. Thank you, Thatha :)



Note: This recipe was adapted from a Food Network recipe. I did not adapt too much though ;) I'm not a great baker and wanted to be careful. I hate measuring stuff, so I usually bake with what I have in hand. It comes out quite well, though not perfect. This time, they were perfect. Patience pays, I've learned :) I added more vanilla essence, omitted the nuts because I did not have any and added more bananas and used a little less oil than recommended.

Of course, it helped that I bought new muffin trays and was dying to try them ;) Also, the batter was a lot for 12 muffins, so I also filled up the new RED (see! I told you about my obsession with colour) ramekin I bought with this batter and popped it into the oven! So what if ramekins are not used for banana cakes/muffins ;) We are all trying to be different no? Also, for the batter that I used in the ramekin, I topped it with a crumbly mixture of this:

3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp butter

Mix these well, make sure its crumbly. Make sure that the butter is soft.

(all this done in a hurry since I suddenly saw this bit from Ina Garten's show on Food Network on TV then :P She did this for a blueberry crumb cake. The impatient me, sigh! I did this in the last minute. Almost put the ramekin in, sighed, washed my hands, came out to the drawing room, saw the show, went back into the kitchen, took out the ramekin, and did this topping. Phew!)


All the impatience created these muffins and I was done with the whole thing including cleaning (and eating while clicking as you can see!) in an hour :) I do not see anything wrong with these results. Neither did A, for whom it was a surprise evening snack. Whaddya think?


P.S. - We bought new bakeware for DIRT CHEAP. So, this blog is going to see a flurry of baked food :D Yay!

22 comments:

Arundathi said...

lovely muffins - and nice story abt your thatha. btw, for the topping is is 1 tbsp or 1 cup of all-purpose flour?

sra said...

Can't help laughing at the exclamation mark about your Thata's prayers!
Those muffins look quite delectable - the solo shots!

Shreya said...

Awesome, Nandu. And Happy baking:-)

Veda said...

hehehehe....i saw ur comment in arundathi's puliogare recipe...i havent stopped smiling after reading it.

"Arent Iyengars notorious for NOT sharing their puliyodharai recipes ;) ? But seriously, this looks gorgeous!"

:-)so there u go, u can find the traditional recipe in my blog

Deeba PAB said...

I can smell the bananas as I read, 7 can see a big happy mouth stuffed with ripe bananas!! YIKES!! Glad you enjoy the memory. Now I'm very envious of many things...
1. Red ramekins & I don't even own white!*SIGH*
2. DIRT CHEAP bakeware...what torture is this!!*SULK*
3. You live in peach country!!
Oooh lucky you...I make banana muffins very often for the kids (throw in walnuts & choc-chips too), but cant eat them for some silly reason! I love the way yours have turned out. Looking forward to loads of baking...your write-up was very interesting indeed. Cheers!!

Deeba PAB said...

Me again...just read Veda's comment"Arent Iyengars notorious for NOT sharing their puliyodharai recipes ;) ...what's puliyodharai???

Indranee Batabyal said...

Wow! My favorite banana muffins:)I love them. I have something for you in my blog:)Enjoy!

FH said...

My kids love Banana nut muffins for breakfast, looks greatN! Thatha will be very happy ofcourse!:)
A tip: Got to take them out of the oven a bit earlier to avoid burning on the edges. Even though recipes say bake for such time, each oven is different in maintaining temp and got to watch muffins at last few mins and remove when they are golden!:)

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Great muffins! Perfect!

You are lucky to be able to find such cheap bakeware! Here, it is hilariously expensive and the choice is limited!

Cheers,

Rosa

Chibog in Chief said...

oh lala, i would love to have some for dessert :-)

A_and_N said...

@ Arundathi: Err..hmm..sorry, it is 1 tbsp. It really depends on how to make the mixture crumbly. So.. (N ducks!) I've changed that in the post. Thanks for pointing out!

@ Sra: Ya, he was nuts about his mother and my granny hated her :D You can imagine what went through! Thanks Sra :)

@ Shreya: :D Thanks

@ Veda Murthy: LOL, that was A. And I am going to try this recipe for Deeba and post it! Thanks again, Veda

@ Deeba: :) The next time we come to India, we could certainly get you some! And 'puliyodarai' is tamarind rice and the Iyengars' (a community) traditional food. And it comes out a particular way for them, and in the olden(!) days, they never, NEVER shared that recipe. But its YUMMMY, especially when eaten with cold yoghurt. Sigh.

@ Indranee: Thanks for thinking of us :) We'll get to the tag soon.

@ Asha: Aaah, I knew! LOL, ya, I removed it a tad late. Will improve next time, promise! :) But thanks, really!

@ Rosa: Thank you, Rosa!

@ Dhanggit: :) come home!

Sum Raj said...

surprise 4 u..check my blog

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Very beautiful memory from your grandpa and great looking muffins, must have filled you house with a lovely smell. Keep the baking coming!

RM said...

Yumm..looks wow !
Wud definitely try this oneee...
and congo on your new bakeware !
happy bakiiing :)
Rgds,
Sam.

Cakelaw said...

Fabulous loking muffins and a great way to use up over-ripe bananas. Wonderful memories of your grandfather too - thanks for sharing them with us.

Lore said...

Beautiful memories and banana muffins. Bananas make any baked dessert irresistible, yum!

Swati said...

Awesome muffins... Great job !!
The write up was very interesting too!!

PG said...

The banana muffins look so yummy. They even look a bit like puas, north Indian fried balls made with flour and banana. But a much better option than Puas. Will surely try them out too. It is not rare that I have left over bananas (over-ripe!). Like today I will make whole wheat pancakes with them. Their taste is very distinctively of Puas.

A_and_N said...

@ Suma: OMG! Thank you sooo much :)

@ Clumbsy cookie: Yes, the smell was great!

@ Sam: Thanks Sam. And yes, we're going crazy with the new bakeware here :)

@ Cakelaw: You are very welcome! I think you also have that 'family' flavor in you blog :)

@ Lore: Thanks!

@ Swati: We're glad you liked both :)

@ pg: Thanks! And we're eagerly waiting for your Puas :)

Unknown said...

muffins looks yum..i would be eagerly waiting for your delicious bakes...

Trupti said...

Thank you A & N for visiting my blog. This is my first visit to your blog. You have nice collection of recipes.

Muffins looks very delicious.

The Caked Crusader said...

Ooh these look good - lovely texture!
Great photos