Muffins.

The muffin tin that Cranemelon gave me for Christmas in 2010 is finally getting a lot of use. (She gave me a nice cake pan for Christmas 2011 that is still in the box.) Since the cupcakes, muffins have become my thing. I was going to a nearby cafe for a morning muffin and while those are fine, I sometimes found myself thinking, I wish these weren't so fatty or that they are way too sweet or way too big even for me. The muffin habit tapered off and it occurred to me that I could just bake something that's more to my liking and save some money and get into the habit of eating a small breakfast every day.


Today's breakfast: a couple of the banana nut muffins pictured above and earl grey tea. Just keep a box of tea in your desk at work and remember to have a clean mug handy. Perfect. 


The first thing I tried were one dozen blueberry muffins. I just found a very simple recipe online—probably the first one that came up in a search. If you know where to look, there may be an Asian grocer near your home that sells produce at better prices. We found a double pack of ripe blueberries on sale for a buck. I had an overripe banana on the counter so I mashed that up and included it and cut the sugar the recipe called for in half. In this case, I used a baking mix as a base instead of sourcing flour, baking soda, etc...


Once you get comfortable with what the batter should look like and knowing how much egg is enough, you can play around further with the recipe, in other words, stray from it. This time, I thought the banana would pair with walnuts and I didn't have fresh berries anyway. Oddly, this made twice as many muffins as last time. Tip: walnut baking pieces are the same price per pound as walnut halves and pieces; at least, this is the case at the Trader Joe's in Chino. I bought halves/pieces and thought they made a nice presentation when you put 2-4 on the tops before baking. I cut the sugar in half, so you can imagine, these aren't very sweet at all and because I pretty much omitted all added fat, you won't feel bad adding a little bit of butter if you prefer your muffins on the warmer side. 


A friend just asked to try one, but he's allergic to walnuts. I'm thinking of making zucchini ones next time with no nuts. I'll report back on that. Maybe we can pair something interesting with zucchini. I'll give it a good think and try something over the weekend.