Banana Hazelnut Breakfast Muffins - vegan

I've been on a bit of a kick lately- not a cleaning kick, exactly, but there has been some. Not a purging kick, either, though there has also been some of that. I think it's more of a use-things-up-or-put-them-away-out-of-sight-let's-see-some-order-around-here kind of kick. To clarify, I don't think our place is a mess or is super cluttered. I would just like it to be less so, some days. And some days I'm able to do something about it.

I forget why I bought the bag of hazelnuts in the first place, but it has been waiting, taunting me, and taking up space in my tiny kitchen for months. I think it may have actually made the move with us, so maybe I bought it with the intention of making nutella? or something Christmasy? Whatever the original intention was, I'm sure it was tasty, but time marches on and I want these nuts gone. Pronto.

In addition, the shelves in my freezer door were on their way to becoming full of overripe, brown bananas. One of the happy side-benefits of my job is that there are overripe bananas free for the taking fairly frequently, and while I can usually restrain myself, I sometimes bring home a bunch. There's only so many morning bowls of oatmeal I can stand to taste like bananas, and I'm not currently on a smoothie kick.

What puts a dent in both a languishing bag of hazelnuts and a plethora of brown bananas? Breakfast muffins, of course. I'm specifying breakfast muffins here because they can't pass for dessert, like strawberry banana or pumpkin can. These aren't terribly sweet, but they are filled with healthy banana goodness, whole wheat flour, and a touch of protein (and good fat? anyone know about hazelnuts?).

I still have a good amount of both nuts and bananas leftover, but there's nutella and cupcakes and probably some more muffins on the horizon. One of these days my pantry will look just perfect, so until then, I'll just have to keep experimenting.




Banana Hazelnut Muffins - vegan
adapted from The Tassajara Bread Book, which is the book that taught me to make bread. I highly recommend it.

I started out making this with the intention of adding cinnamon and nutmeg, but I completely forgot. Actually, I didn't completely forget because I remembered after they were in the oven. sigh. In any case, I can't totally vouch since I haven't tried it, but I would add a tablespoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, and perhaps another 1/2 teaspoon of cloves. 

2 C (8 oz) whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C oil (or butter/vegan butter), I used a mix of olive and canola
1/2 C sugar or honey
zest of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, but any kind will work)
2 C mashed banana pulp (3-4 large or about 1 lb peeled)
1/2 to 1 C (2 oz) chopped hazelnuts (or walnuts. optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tins* or grease a loaf pan.

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl. Set aside.

In a medium/large bowl, blend together oil and honey or sugar. If using butter, cream. Add in lemon zest and vinegar and mix to combine. Add the sifted ingredients in three parts, alternating with the banana pulp. Beat smooth after each addition. Fold in chopped nuts, if using.

Divide batter among muffin cups and bake, 16-19 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Alternatively, you can test for doneness my lightly pressing on the top of a muffin with your finger. If it springs back, they are done. If a finger-sized dent remains, continue baking for a minute or two.

Remove pans from oven and allow muffins to cool 5 or so minutes in the pan before you remove them and allow them to finish cooling on a wire rack.

*I'm not totally sure on the number of muffins this recipe will yield. I mixed sizes and made 12 mini muffins and 9 standard sized muffins, so my guess is this batter will divide into about 16 standard size muffins or a whole bunch (30-40??) minis.