Banana Yogurt Muffins and Little Banana Bread Loaf

I drove to Grinnell Saturday. Roger was in the garden — the garden that is his whole world now, the 82-year-old man who tends six tomato plants and twelve sunflowers with the same care he once gave four hundred acres. He's slower but he's still Roger. He still watches the crop reports. He still calls Jack on Wednesdays.

The recipe this week: lemon chicken with capers. Standing at the stove, Marlene's wooden spoon in my hand (the cracked one, the one that will outlast us all), the recipe either from the card box or from my own expanding collection, both equally real, both equally mine. The kitchen holds all of it — the old recipes and the new ones, the teacher's food and the student's food, the grief and the joy and the cinnamon. All of it. Always.

The garden is waking up. The garlic that overwintered is pushing green shoots through the soil, the annual proof that buried things come back. Jack's seedlings are hardening off in the greenhouse. The Marlene cherry tomato — generation 5 now — ready for transplanting. Every spring the planting is the memorial. Every spring the name goes back in the ground.

I came home from Grinnell with dirt under my fingernails from helping Roger stake one of the tomato cages, and all I wanted was to bake something that required nothing from me except a bowl and a wooden spoon. The bananas on the counter had gone past their moment — the way things do when you’ve been away — and this recipe gave me both a dozen muffins to share and one small loaf just for the kitchen, which felt exactly right for a Saturday like that one.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 12 muffins + 1 small loaf (about 14 servings)

Ingredients

3 large very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup neutral oil (such as vegetable or light olive oil)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat and prepare pans. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin and one small (5×3-inch) loaf pan, or line the muffin cups with paper liners.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla until smooth and well combined.
Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
Fold together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until just combined — a few streaks of flour are fine. Do not overmix. Fold in walnuts or chocolate chips if using.
Fill the pans. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Pour the remaining batter into the prepared small loaf pan.
Bake. Place both pans in the oven. Remove the muffins after 18–22 minutes, when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Continue baking the small loaf for an additional 12–15 minutes (30–37 minutes total), until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool. Let the muffins rest in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Allow the loaf to cool in its pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely before slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Banana Yogurt Muffins and Little Banana Bread Loaf — Something Warm to Carry Home