Banana Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Walnut Crunch

I am in a strange sort of limbo this week. I felt so clever when I put in my two weeks notice so that my last ho-hum day at my ho-hum office job would be one week before my first happy day at my first happy pastry place.

Having this time off seemed utterly divine and blissful as I was looking forward to it. I envisioned myself spending my days lounging on the couch, enrobed in fine linens while nibbling bonbons, with not a care in the world…

But, when Monday actually rolled around, the reality of it all was quite annoying. I realized that my couch isn’t very comfortable, I don’t have fine linens to wrap myself in, and eating too many bonbons gave me a splitting headache and made me cranky. Oh yeah, and I was lonely.

So, I did what makes me feel better…I baked something. And for me, there is really nothing cozier than baking muffins.



I had some over-ripe bananas and some lovely pink lady apples around, so I decided to put that combo together and sprinkle the top with a tasty cinnamon-walnut crunch. Luckily, these muffins cheered me up and were just as wonderful as I had imagined.

Banana Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Walnut Crunch
Makes 12 muffins

For the muffins:
3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
1 pink lady apple, chopped into ¼ inch dice (I like the skin on, but do whatever makes you happy)
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup cinnamon apple instant oatmeal (or any flavor you like…if you don’t have this around, you can just add an additional ¼ cup of flour instead)
¾ cup brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ stick of butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cups milk (I used 1%)
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Cinnamon Walnut Crunch:
*This makes more than you’ll need…use the rest to much on or put on top of yogurt.
1 egg white
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts

To make the Cinnamon Walnut Crunch:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Whisk egg white until frothy, then whisk in sugar and cinnamon. Fold in the nuts. Spread on parchment-lined sheet tray and bake for ~12 minutes, until beginning to dry. Stir to break up nuts. Continue to bake until nuts and coating are dry and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool and finely chop.

To make the Banana Apple Muffins:

Turn up the oven to 350 degrees (after the walnut crunch is done). In a large bowl, combine the flours, oatmeal, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger and salt and whisk to mix well. In another large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, melted but cooled butter, milk, eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the banana mixture into the well and stir gently with a rubber spatula. Mix only until there are no more streaks of flour or pools of liquid and the batter looks fairly smooth. A few small lumps scattered throughout are fine. Gently fold in the apple pieces until evenly distributed.

Grease muffin tin or line with 12 paper liners. Fill each spot ¾ full with batter. Sprinkle Cinnamon Walnut Crunch evenly on top. Bake muffins for ~17-20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Roasted Red Pepper, Feta and Basil Muffins

After long workdays that I spend sitting on my bum for far too long, I stroll up the San Francisco hills and wind through the (windy!) Italian neighborhood, called North Beach. I’m on my way to my pastry classroom at The Tante Marie Cooking School. Along my journey, I inhale deeply as I pass the chocolate shop on the corner of Columbus and Stockton. It smells more like rich and buttery caramel than chocolate, but is still a sweet reprieve from the usual city “aroma”- which I will avoid describing in case anyone reading this is in the midst of a snack.

Once I have climbed an urban mountain, I see the lovely Bay in the distance (some days more clearly than others, we’re at the mercy of the fog). When I see the water, I feel happier…relaxed…lucky.



And then, down the street I go, trying to look somewhat normal as I walk/run (the run part is not on purpose) down the hill towards the school, wearing a giant backpack overstuffed with my apron, checkered pants, pastry jacket and recipes.





Once inside the school, dinner (courtesy of the culinary students) is served.



In return, we leave them pastries for the next morning, which are generally well received. However, one snooty culinary student once told me that she didn’t like to eat pastries in the morning, so could we please just make oatmeal. For that comment, she will not be invited to my next birthday party…(humph). After dinner, we start baking the recipes for the evening.

And now, I’m going to flip things around a little bit…I’m going to recipe travel back to the first week of pastry school and write about muffins. I know muffins aren’t fancy, they certainly don’t require a pastry school background, and they are often passed up in bakery cases. A friend of mine even suggested that “Muffins are just ugly cupcakes." Well, that is ludicrous...maybe cupcakes are just muffins in drag! [By the way, I’m not anti-cupcake…I just like muffins better].

And now, since I’ve already time traveled, I’m going to confuse things even more. One of the things that I’ve learned from pastry school that I wasn’t necessarily expecting is a new approach towards thinking about foods and recipes. There is sort of a release from expectations…twists on ingredients and food norms that create something a bit unexpected. For example...



Roasted Red Pepper, Basil and Feta Muffins. What? A muffin? But, it’s savory. Why, yes…it is….and it is delicious!



These muffins are great in the morning…or mid-day with some soup or salad for lunch…or with a nice piece of steak/fish/whatever you fancy for dinner. In a nutshell…these muffins are just yummy. You should really give them a try, I think you’ll be happily surprised.

Roasted Red Pepper, Basil and Feta Muffins
(adapted from The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached AP Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cups (4 ounces) jarred roasted red bell pepper, patted dry and chopped into 1/4 inch dice
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk
1/4 cup (2 ounces) olive oil
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and position an oven rack in the center. Lightly coat a 12-cup muffin tin with butter, oil, or high-heat oil spray. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together feta cheese, roasted bell pepper, and chopped basil. Set aside.

Pour the buttermilk into a medium bowl. Add the olive oil and egg and whisk together until well blended. make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the well and stir gently with a spatula. Mix only until there are no more streaks of flour or pools of liquid and the batter looks fairly smooth. A few small lumbs scattered throughout are fine, they will disappear during the baking. Gently fold in the feta cheese mixture until evenly distributed.

Use a large ice cream scoop or two soup spoons to divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until tops feel firm and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer muffin tin to a a rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Gently run a thin knife or spatula arond each muffin to free it from the pan, lift out the muffns and transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Serve warm.

Happy Easter - Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Lemon Curd

Happy Easter!  

I woke up this morning, and all I could think about was how I wanted to bake Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.  

I already had some freshly-made lemon curd in my fridge (I made it yesterday at Pastry School) desperately in need of a home.  What could be a more perfect vehicle for this tart custard gold than a sweet little muffin? 

Because it's Easter, and because all holidays make me miss my family even more than usual (and "usual" is a LOT), these muffins are in honor of my parents. 

Anything of the muffin variety reminds me of my Dad...and the sour, brightness of lemon is something he'd definitely love.  I knew I wanted them to be Poppyseed, because that reminds me of my Mom.  In fact, I'm sure if she was here to try a bite (or ten), she would get 100 of the tiny black orbs stuck in her teeth...right in time for a photo opp.

I decided to use a basic buttermilk muffin recipe, and twist it a little.  I added the zest of a couple Eureka Lemons (this is the kind that all supermarkets carry, and we know them just as the generic lemon), toasted some thinly sliced almonds for crunch, and added a quarter cup of poppyseeds.  Then, after filling my muffin tins, I added a mountain of silky, yellow lemon curd right on top, dusted them with some raw turbinado sugar (which gives the top a very pleasing crunchy sweetness), and into the oven they went. As the muffins baked, the lemon curd oozed and cradled itself deep inside it's muffin nest, creating a lovely balance of flavors and textures.  I'm a sucker for anything mini, so I made half of the batch as mini muffins and half as regular.

Just like how the tart and sweet complement one another in these muffins, my home-sick feeling was countered by the sweet and wonderful feeling of being able to share these muffins with my lovely boyfriend Nick's, family.  I also discovered that these muffins are all the more delicious with a good glass of champagne...but, then again, what isn't?