November 11th - Banana Muffins

If it has the word "banana" in it, chances are, runners will eat it.  With the day off of school on account of Veteran's Day, I figured I needed to bake something.  But two days before regionals wasn't exactly the best time to bake the most fattening thing I could think of (I'm saving that for after the race...).  So scanning through Joanne Chang's new cookbook, Flour, I came across a recipe for banana bread that seemed perfect.  I didn't actually have a bread tin, so I had to bake the batter in muffin tins.  This actually worked out better though since it divided up the bread into nice portions (so that none of my teammates would be fighting over who got the "bigger piece").

MUFFINS - 

• 3.5 mashed, ripe bananas
• 1.66c flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• .25tsp cinnamon
• .5tsp salt
• 1c + 2tbsp sugar
• 2 eggs
• .5c oil
• 2tbsp sour cream
• .66c chopped, toasted walnuts

1. Baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes

Note the missing muffin...

RESULTS - 
These did not survive the trip down to regionals.  Only a few of the guys on the team tried them at first, but once word got around at how moist, banana-y, and generally delicious they were, they were fighting over who got the last ones.  I personally loved them as well.  They had just the right amount of flavor and were neither too light and un-fulfilling nor too heavy and dense.  The chopped walnuts were great in the batter, though next time I may add more varieties of nuts into the mix.  Also, I might change half of the sugar to brown sugar and substitute some of the oil with applesauce to make it a tad healthier.  However, on the other end of the spectrum, if I wanted to make them more "dessert-like," a nutty, brown sugar/cinnamon streusel could be added.