Banana Muffins- A Pleasant Breakfast

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Well guys its really a long time since I have blogged.Well I had been working on 2 recipes namely 'Victoria Sponge Cake' from Tarla Dalal's "Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking' and the 'Thattai Murukku' from Priya's "Sugar and Spice". But both the recipes turned out a big flop for me.

Here goes the thattai murukku story. I was too enthu when I started to make this because the batter when put together tasted so yummy and I dint know that the frying part would pose such a problem.But after batch after batch of deep frying I got totally frustrated because each batch of thattai's came out soft , chewy and only a few came out crispy.I just couldn't think what was wrong.Well the only thing I could come up was the oil temperature.But Priya gave some very good tips too(Thanks Priya I will make sure I follow them next time). While deep frying its always better to use the right vessel. I used an aluminium kadai which was in a slanting position all the time and no wonder the heat from the coil did not pass thru to the kadai.So next time when I try this I want to buy a flat cast iron pot or I would love to hear suggestions from you guys!!

OK..ready for the next sad story(Well if you have forgotten.....iam talking about the cake!!!fellas!! )I made cake acc to the directions and I thought I would get a perfect cake.But the cake wasn't spongy nor hard.It was kinda inbetween.It had bits of baking powder here and there throughout the cake.The reason- I did not mix the dry ingredients properly and hence the above result. My friend Kay had dropped by and asked her to taste the cake and she said that it tasted eggy.Another thing was I did not use the center rack while baking the cake so it was baking all the while close to the bottom heat rods and it turned dark brown on the edges and the inside did not cook thru completely.So the tip here is "Always use center rack while baking cakes or muffins". Another tip learnt here is "Always mix the dry ingredients thoroughly before adding them to the wet ingredients".

Well today I wanted to give a last try for the Banana muffin recipe as it also had a couple of trial runs in my kitchen and I came to a point where I wanted to give up but just thought why not give one more LAST shot and then give up. So I did what I had to do and the result is STUNNING!!! Well before presenting the recipe I would like to say that I have reduced the recipe from original version to make just 7 large banana muffins.(the original recipe calls for 18 muffins)

OK now without much further ado I hereby present the AMAZING recipe that I have learnt from Food Network...

Ingredients

all purpose flr or maida- 3/4 cup
baking soda - 1/4 tsp
baking powder - 1/8 tsp
salt-1/4 tsp
ground cinnamon-1/8 tsp
ground nutmeg-1/8 tsp
sugar - 1/2 cup
safflower oil - 1/4 cup(the recipe calls for vegetable oil)
egg -1
vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp
banana - 1 ripe (mashed nicely)

Method

1. Whisk all dry ingredients nicely in a med size bowl(flr,baking powder,baking soda,salt,g.nutmeg,g.cinnamon).There shouldn't be any lumps at all.
2. Whisk (sugar,oil,egg,vanilla essence) in another large bowl just till blended.Now stir in bananas.
3. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until blended. I repeat here do not overblend which will tend the batter to become fibrous and will result in a thick muffin.
4. Preheat oven to 325 F.
5. Divide the batter among muffin cups(Spray PAM on each paper muffin cup and dab throughout cup with a tissue paper)
6. Bake the muffins in middle rack about 25 - 27 min.
7. Now cool the muffins on a cooling rack and apply whatever frosting you prefer and enjoy to your heart's content.

(Note:When using a muffin pan if there are empty muffin cups with no batter to be filled, fill them with water just till halfway of each cup.)

I would love to contribute this recipe to
Sweetnicks ARF 5 a day Tuesday