Maple-Sweetened Banana Muffins

One year since I started this blog. March 2016, I wrote a first post that I mostly cannot read back now without cringing, too earnest, too much explaining. But I wrote it and I kept going and here I am a year later still writing. Still cooking. Still figuring out what both things are for.

The blog was Gloria idea, technically. Not that she said start a blog. She said, after I moved into the apartment, write down what you cook. The recipe and what you felt making it. And I thought about that for a few weeks and then I made a site and I started writing. So it is hers in that way, like so many things are hers in the ways that count.

This week I made banana pudding. Not the instant kind, the real kind, with homemade custard, Nilla Wafers, fresh bananas. Her recipe, which I have on one of her index cards in her handwriting. Blue ink, her neat small letters, the card slightly stained at the top from something years ago. I have made banana pudding before with Gloria standing there guiding me. This was the second time I had done it alone and the first time it set correctly. The custard was thick and glossy and smelled like warm vanilla, and when I tasted a spoon of it the next morning I thought: yes. That is right. That is the thing.

Took half the bowl to Sunday dinner. She tasted it and nodded and said nothing for a moment, which is actually better than words. Then she said: your custard is good. Coming from Gloria, that is scripture.

Spring is fully arrived now. I have a pot of herbs on the windowsill, basil and rosemary, that I bought on a whim and have somehow kept alive. I do not know how to use rosemary yet really but I like looking at it. It seems like the kind of plant a person who knows what she is doing would have.

The banana pudding was Gloria’s, and that recipe lives on an index card I will never write over. But after a year of this blog — a year of writing down what I cook and what I feel making it — I wanted something I could share here that carries the same spirit: ripe bananas, a little warmth, nothing fussy. These Maple-Sweetened Banana Muffins are that thing. Simple enough that you can make them on a Sunday morning, good enough to bring somewhere and feel proud. Banana recipes have a way of feeling like they belong to someone who loved you first, and I think that’s exactly right.

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 pure maple syrup
1/3 cup melted coconut oil or unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease lightly with cooking spray.
Mash the bananas. In a large bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until smooth with just a few small lumps remaining. The riper the bananas, the sweeter and more flavorful your muffins will be.
Mix the wet ingredients. Add the maple syrup, melted coconut oil (or butter), eggs, and vanilla extract to the mashed bananas. Whisk together until well combined.
Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Fold together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until just combined — do not overmix. A few streaks of flour are fine. Fold in walnuts or chocolate chips if using.
Fill and bake. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops are golden.
Cool before serving. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. They are best at room temperature and keep well in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 2 months.

Nutrition (per serving)

Maple-Sweetened Banana Muffins — When Bananas Remind You Who Taught You Everything