Tried a new recipe...It was a recipe for delicious banana upside down muffins. I was a little surprised by how easy they were. The recipe looks like it would take more time. But it doesn't. So get some bananas, click on the link, and make muffins. Here's how mine went. This isn't the actual recipe. That's why there's the link to click on. But this is how I did it, and some of the changes I made, and suggestions I have, and of course, my photos.
You start out by making caramel. It's much easier than most caramel making. All you do is toss your 2 tsp of butter and 2 tsp of brown sugar in each space in the muffin tin, then put it in the oven for about 10 minutes.
I did more like 6-8 minutes.
I've burnt enough stuff that I usually at least start it out with a bit less time on it than the recipe calls for.
You don't even have to bother stirring the caramel as it cooks. You just leave it in the oven til it gets all bubbly.
The recipe says dark brown sugar, but I've never been wildly keen on the stronger molasses taste. So I used light brown sugar, and it was great.
Then you take your leopard bananas. Hahaha...when you're sleepy, it's hard to stop typing banananananananas...I got a bunch of bananas last week, and have been waiting for them to get to just the right level of ripeness for baking. I think they were pretty good. Super sweet, but not mush. I wound up only using two bananas instead of the 4 it called for (I was gonna just do a half recipe, decided to do full and forgot that I'd already halved the bananas), but there were complaints on the page of them not being good to eat the next day, and mine were fine, so that may have had something to do with it. They were pretty good sized too.
Slice the bananas nice and thin. I know bananas don't necessarily need a sharp knife, but it does make them mush less, so I usually use one.
You let the caramel cool a little when it first comes out of the oven. And be really careful with it. If you get this stuff on your skin, it'll stick, and it'll burn. Didn't do it this time, but I have had stuff like this get on my skin before. Trust me...don't try it. Or do. It's a free country. But if you do, I will laugh at your stupidity because you ignored my warning :~)
I was a little concerned this went too dark, and it was close, but not burnt. I hate the taste of burned stuff, and this was just under burned. It was pretty much perfect
I didn't add the rum that the recipe calls for, but I wanted some sort of extra flavouring aside from the vanilla extract. So I put in some ginger.
I used to hate ginger so much. Thought it was one of the more disgusting tastes in the world. Still don't like biting into a big chunk of it, but I do like it in a lot of dishes. Or tea. I think it was Indian cuisine that changed my mind.
Keep the fingers out of the way of the grater...
I did maybe half an inch or so of ginger, with the finest part of the grater. I didn't want to steep the ginger and add the liquid, so I grated it very fine so as not to end up with huge chunks of ginger. Didn't want these to be culinary land mines...
Fresh Nutmeg...Yeah...This nutmeg has been around as long as I can remember...Can you tell we don't use it much? This is not a huge tin.We just really don't use nutmeg very often at all. Oh well, still seems to work tolerably well.
I almost always substitute applesauce for oil. Except for frying. Applesauce does a rubbish job of frying things...But as far as putting it in cakes or whatever for moisture and as a binding agent, it works very well, and is way healthier than oil. Especially if you get unsweetened. Or, even better, make it yourself. I've done that once...It was delicious, but took forever.
Eggs...I had a ton of eggs to choose from. I need to start eating more, as well as selling them $2/dozen if anyone is interested). The girls have been laying very nicely for me. I could have used a blue egg, but they tend to be a bit smaller.
Fun fact...the pigment in blue eggs is added early on in the formation of an egg, and cannot be scraped off. It is incorporated throughout the thickness of the shell. However, the brown pigment, whether dark, or simply tan, is added later in the making of the egg, and can be scraped off. And now you know...
I almost always crack my eggs into a separate cup. Have since I cracked an egg that had been frozen into a dish I was making. It looked like a melon ball, and I could stab the yolk with a fork and pick it up. It was thawed by then, but was still kinda messed up. May have still been ok to eat, but I didn't think it was smart to try. And after hearing stories of rotten eggs and various gross things, I figure it's better to not risk ruining a whole dish.
Thought I'd checked my recipe and had everything, but I forgot to buy milk when I was shopping the other day. Luckily we had a couple tins of evaporated milk. And, I count it fortunate that this was still usable, as it expired in 2011. Tasted fine. Baked up fine. I'm not too worried about dying from it.
Once you figure out what milk you're using, mix all of the wet ingredients, and the brown sugar together. I guess brown sugar counts as a wet ingredient.
It looks kinda cool before it actually mixes together, especially the milk and egg, but once it's mixed together, it kinda looks like vomit. Yes, I know that I probably should not talk about vomit while doing a food blog...Part of the reason I don't do food stuff that often :~)
Mix the dry ingredients together, then pour the wet ingredients in, and mix til moistened.
I put half of the mixture into the cupcake tin with the caramel and bananas, then put the grated ginger in with the rest of the batter. I didn't want to put ginger in the whole thing just in case it didn't work out taste wise.
I put the gingery batter in the remaining cups, and stuck it all in the oven.
Don't those look amazing? The caramel sort of went all over the place, but that was ok. This is one reason though that I would recommend using a non-stick pan. I was actually pretty impressed with how well the caramel came out of the cups, and even off of the top surface. And you won't want to waste any of the caramel :~)
As good as the non-stick pan was, the muffins did not want to come out just at first. I shook the pan over my cookie sheet, then just let them sit there upside down for a little while to see if they'd loosen up.
Finally grabbed a spoon and ran it around the edge of each muffin. Apparently it was only the baked caramel that kept them from coming loose, and as soon as that was cut by the spoon, they fell right out, with their caramel on the bottom.
A bit of a mess. And, in getting them out, I mixed up which were the ginger muffins and which were plain. The only way to really tell is to eat one. I do think that next time, I'll do all of them with a little ginger. It adds a very pleasant note to the banana flavour, and all of the sweetness.
You start out by making caramel. It's much easier than most caramel making. All you do is toss your 2 tsp of butter and 2 tsp of brown sugar in each space in the muffin tin, then put it in the oven for about 10 minutes.
I've burnt enough stuff that I usually at least start it out with a bit less time on it than the recipe calls for.
You don't even have to bother stirring the caramel as it cooks. You just leave it in the oven til it gets all bubbly.
The recipe says dark brown sugar, but I've never been wildly keen on the stronger molasses taste. So I used light brown sugar, and it was great.
Then you take your leopard bananas. Hahaha...when you're sleepy, it's hard to stop typing banananananananas...I got a bunch of bananas last week, and have been waiting for them to get to just the right level of ripeness for baking. I think they were pretty good. Super sweet, but not mush. I wound up only using two bananas instead of the 4 it called for (I was gonna just do a half recipe, decided to do full and forgot that I'd already halved the bananas), but there were complaints on the page of them not being good to eat the next day, and mine were fine, so that may have had something to do with it. They were pretty good sized too.
Slice the bananas nice and thin. I know bananas don't necessarily need a sharp knife, but it does make them mush less, so I usually use one.
You let the caramel cool a little when it first comes out of the oven. And be really careful with it. If you get this stuff on your skin, it'll stick, and it'll burn. Didn't do it this time, but I have had stuff like this get on my skin before. Trust me...don't try it. Or do. It's a free country. But if you do, I will laugh at your stupidity because you ignored my warning :~)
I was a little concerned this went too dark, and it was close, but not burnt. I hate the taste of burned stuff, and this was just under burned. It was pretty much perfect
I used to hate ginger so much. Thought it was one of the more disgusting tastes in the world. Still don't like biting into a big chunk of it, but I do like it in a lot of dishes. Or tea. I think it was Indian cuisine that changed my mind.
I did maybe half an inch or so of ginger, with the finest part of the grater. I didn't want to steep the ginger and add the liquid, so I grated it very fine so as not to end up with huge chunks of ginger. Didn't want these to be culinary land mines...
Fresh Nutmeg...Yeah...This nutmeg has been around as long as I can remember...Can you tell we don't use it much? This is not a huge tin.We just really don't use nutmeg very often at all. Oh well, still seems to work tolerably well.
I almost always substitute applesauce for oil. Except for frying. Applesauce does a rubbish job of frying things...But as far as putting it in cakes or whatever for moisture and as a binding agent, it works very well, and is way healthier than oil. Especially if you get unsweetened. Or, even better, make it yourself. I've done that once...It was delicious, but took forever.
Fun fact...the pigment in blue eggs is added early on in the formation of an egg, and cannot be scraped off. It is incorporated throughout the thickness of the shell. However, the brown pigment, whether dark, or simply tan, is added later in the making of the egg, and can be scraped off. And now you know...
Thought I'd checked my recipe and had everything, but I forgot to buy milk when I was shopping the other day. Luckily we had a couple tins of evaporated milk. And, I count it fortunate that this was still usable, as it expired in 2011. Tasted fine. Baked up fine. I'm not too worried about dying from it.
Once you figure out what milk you're using, mix all of the wet ingredients, and the brown sugar together. I guess brown sugar counts as a wet ingredient.
It looks kinda cool before it actually mixes together, especially the milk and egg, but once it's mixed together, it kinda looks like vomit. Yes, I know that I probably should not talk about vomit while doing a food blog...Part of the reason I don't do food stuff that often :~)
Mix the dry ingredients together, then pour the wet ingredients in, and mix til moistened.
I put half of the mixture into the cupcake tin with the caramel and bananas, then put the grated ginger in with the rest of the batter. I didn't want to put ginger in the whole thing just in case it didn't work out taste wise.
I put the gingery batter in the remaining cups, and stuck it all in the oven.
You can see a few pieces of banana sticking out of the batter in this photo, and I don't think it would matter too much. The banana mush down, and the batter rises, and it should be ok. I did push them down though, just in case.
Don't those look amazing? The caramel sort of went all over the place, but that was ok. This is one reason though that I would recommend using a non-stick pan. I was actually pretty impressed with how well the caramel came out of the cups, and even off of the top surface. And you won't want to waste any of the caramel :~)
As good as the non-stick pan was, the muffins did not want to come out just at first. I shook the pan over my cookie sheet, then just let them sit there upside down for a little while to see if they'd loosen up.
Finally grabbed a spoon and ran it around the edge of each muffin. Apparently it was only the baked caramel that kept them from coming loose, and as soon as that was cut by the spoon, they fell right out, with their caramel on the bottom.
A bit of a mess. And, in getting them out, I mixed up which were the ginger muffins and which were plain. The only way to really tell is to eat one. I do think that next time, I'll do all of them with a little ginger. It adds a very pleasant note to the banana flavour, and all of the sweetness.
These muffins are amazing with a cup of coffee (though, I must say, I don't
know that I have ever had a muffin that would have been bad with
a cup of coffee...). Just found this mug at Goodwill :~)
Coffee cups are an addiction for me.
The muffins are definitely best straight out of the oven, but stay good for a while.
I made them on Wednesday, and just had a couple today (Friday),
and they're still great. I wouldn't suggest keeping them long though, as they are
incredibly moist, and I feel like they would mold in very little time.
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