Healthier Banana Bread Muffins

Healthier Banana Bread Muffins

Before I was able to start creating and cooking my own vegan recipes, there was a bit of a learning curve to overcome.  Having been cooking from an omnivore's perspective for over a decade, it was not clear to me how to make the classic comfort foods, like lasagna, without meat, let alone cheese! And vegan baking was a particular anomaly to me--how do you make cookies or cake without butter and eggs?  Enter my inspirations: Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero: the women behind a great, and at this point, classic vegan blog: Post Punk Kitchen and a masterful vegan cookbook: Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, aka the bible for serious vegan cooks.  I've cooked so many delicious recipes from Moskowitz & Romero's blog and book that were easy enough but also culinary enough to bring me back wanting more, and I think most importantly, send me back into the kitchen confident that I could create sophisticated and delicious vegan fare for my family.

These banana bread muffins are a perfect example of my evolution as an independent vegan cook.  I cooked Veganomicon's version of banana bread a couple of times before I felt comfortable enough with the recipe myself to put a spin on it and create something new in the process.  This, by the way, is how most capable chefs earn their stripes.  First they learn the classics and only then can they derivate and create their own recipes in an intelligent way.  While the ladies' original version is delicious, and they emphasize its lower fat content (a definite plus), I wanted to push the envelope further on the health frontier by incorporating more whole grains (I substituted 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour for 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour) and by using less sugar (I omitted the 1/2 cup of sugar added to the recipe) relying instead on the natural sweetness of the bananas. So if you'd like to be the head chef of your kitchen not just the prep chef, walk away from the recipes now and then.  Try these banana bread muffins and then d.i.y.  That's when the true magic happens.  And a little known secret: cooking without a recipe is a lot easier than squinting over a sauce-splattered one.

Healthier Banana Bread Muffins
Makes a dozen muffins

Ingredients:
1+ 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup 100% Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 ripe or overripe bananas, (I often freeze overripe bananas in their peel and let them thaw on the counter for about an hour before I plan to prepare the muffins-they are so easy to mash this way)
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup vegan butter substitute, melted (I used Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread)
2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup plain soy milk or almond milk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350.  Combine your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and set aside.  In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mash your very ripe or overripe bananas (this is key: you cannot make good banana bread--with maximum banana flavor and a high enough sugar content--with under-ripe or even prime-time bananas).  I like to use a potato masher but you can also use the back of a wooden spoon.  Once your bananas are well-mashed, add the melted vegan butter, molasses, and applesauce to them and stir to combine.  Next, create a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients to them. Stir and fold to combine but don't stir too much or the muffins will turn out too spongy.  If the batter seems dry, which mine did, add a 1/4 cup of plain soy milk or almond milk so that it will come together without being either too wet and slippery or too dry-it should be a little sticky though.  Spoon the batter evenly into a well-greased 12 muffin tin.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool the muffins in the tin on a baking rack for 20 minutes or so before trying to remove them.

Plated and smothered in vegan butter and honey-if you don't eat honey, orange marmalade would be a nice substitute.