Monday Morning Muffins

Having started at a new job, I decided the best way to leap frog from 'new kid on the block' status to 'one of the team' was with baked goods. And since everyone likes muffins and no one likes Monday mornings, I combined the two and was instantly welcomed into the fold. 

PREPARATION TIME: 20 Minutes
TOTAL COOKING TIME: 20 Minutes
Makes: 12

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice 

½ cup (100g) firmly packed brown sugar 

1 cup mashed bananas 

1 cup (160g) seeded chopped dates

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil 

1/3 cup buttermilk (80 ml)

METHOD: 

• Grease 12 hole (1/3 cup/80ml capacity) muffin pan
• Sift dry ingredients into large bowl, stir in remaining ingredients
• Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake in moderately for about 20 minute

You will need about 2 large over-ripe bananas for this recipe. As you can see mine have a lot of over ripening still to do but my impatience to eat them prevents them from getting there. Check my Gardening Tip for what to do with the banana skins.

Fresh eggs laid by our chickens. We have four, one for each family member. My chicken, Paprika was assigned to me and cleverly named by my sister. Paprika is high maintenance and demands to be carried to her night chamber (coop) whilst she wildly protests at having to share her private boudoir with the other (more socially apt) chickens. There is a part of me that thinks my family's choice to give me Paprika is not entirely coincidental.

Dates drowning in a river of buttermilk and eggs. I'm very heavy handed with my buttermilk and only about 3/4 of the dates actually make it into the mix, as my friend and I have recently discovered dates to be the chewy substitutes to chocolate. Do make sure the dates are pitted because there is nothing more off putting than having to shove your hand in your mouth to pick the stones out of your food in front of your colleagues. Or just people in general. 

Remember that muffin mixtures require minimum mixing and should look coarse and lumpy. A metal spoon or fork will do the trick. This is not gravy - lumpy is good.

Double check to make sure the oven is set at the baking setting (the one that looks like a fan on its own, without a line at the top, nor the bottom). Otherwise, if the grills are on, the wee muffins won't have any room to grow and hide their heads in their muffin tin home without ever rising to the top, like all ambitious muffins should.

GARDENING TIP <> BANANA SKINS: The potassium, for which the banana is famous, is mostly contained in the skin, so instead of throwing them into the compost, layer them onto the soil of whatever you happen to be growing in your garden patch. My yellow "Sunshine" cherry tomatoes are presently chewing their way through the peels pictured in this photo. 

SOURCE: The recipe I am using here is from the The Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbooks series titled ‘Muffins, Scones and Breads’. The recipe are triple tested by the Australian Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen, making them fail proof. Thanks to my Mum who has introduced me to the book, disappointment has been eliminated from my Sunday afternoon baking.