Banana Oat Muffins

Last week of October and Halloween is Sunday. At the daycare we have been doing a very low-key Halloween, no scary things, just pumpkins and costumes and candy, and the toddlers have been wearing their costumes to school all week because I decided that was a reasonable policy and I stand by it. My room has had a princess, two dinosaurs, a bumble bee, and one child who insisted on being a mop. I supported the mop.

I made pumpkin bread this week, a real one, with roasted fresh pumpkin I prepared myself rather than canned. The texture is slightly coarser than the canned version and the flavor is more complex, more like actual vegetable and less like the sweet spiced stuff from the can. I used browned butter instead of regular, which adds a nutty depth, and a generous amount of warming spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove. The loaf came out dark and dense and beautiful. I made two, froze one, and brought the other to Gloria's.

Gloria had a hard week with her hands. She told me on Sunday that she had dropped a glass on Tuesday and had not been able to grip it and it shattered on the kitchen floor and she had felt very frustrated about it. She said it in a matter-of-fact tone but I could hear what was underneath. I did not say too much. I just cooked the whole Sunday dinner while she directed and I made sure the food was very good. Sometimes very good food is a kind of apology for what the body does without our permission.

That week I made two loaves of pumpkin bread, but I’ve been thinking ever since about the act of baking something specifically to carry somewhere — the intentionality of it. These banana oat muffins are what I reach for when I want something that travels easily and lands softly, something that doesn’t require a plate or a fork or any fuss on the receiving end. If you have someone in your life who is quietly having a hard time, a bag of these left at the door says exactly the right amount without saying anything at all.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 22 minutes | Total Time: 32 minutes | Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp fine salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease well with butter or nonstick spray.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, melted butter, and brown sugar until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients. Add the rolled oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt directly to the wet ingredients. Stir with a spatula until just combined — do not overmix. The batter will be thick.
Fill the muffin tin. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 prepared cups, filling each about 3/4 full. If you like, sprinkle a few extra oats over the tops.
Bake. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Cool. Let the muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. They are good warm, and they are good the next day, and they travel well wrapped in a clean kitchen towel.

Nutrition (per serving)

Banana Oat Muffins — Something Warm to Leave on Someone’s Doorstep