banana pecan engagement muffins

I'm sure your hear stories of someone getting engaged over muffins every day.
And you patiently sit there and listen to her describing: how it was typical San Francisco's cold and foggy morning, and how she missed her trip to the farmers' market, and how she needed some comforting, so she put two pairs of socks and thick sweats on, and how she decided to make their favorite breakfast: banana-pecan muffins, and how he was making coffee, and how she was mixing and toasting and mashing, and how he was suspiciously weird and nervous that morning, and how she was reaching for a baking powder and grabbed some tiny box instead...
and you can only imagine what happened next...pecans got toasted to a carbon black, the dough got over-mixed and muffins turned out dense and over-baked, but... delicious, best she'd ever had!
And you still sit there with a big smile on your face wondering...if there are any muffins left???
So, I'll spare you all the sappy details and just share this delicious recipe instead.











Banana Pecan Muffins
adapted from Chocolate and Zucchini blog

1 C sugar
1 egg
1/2 C unsalted butter
2 large ripe bananas
1/4 C milk
2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
1Tbsp vanilla extract
1 C pecans, toasted and chopped

Preheat the oven to 360F, and grease muffin pan or line them with baking cups.

In a large mixing-bowl or in a food processor, cream together the sugar, the egg, vanilla extract and butter. In a small bowl, mash together bananas with milk. In another separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three parts, alternating with banana-milk mixture in two parts, stirring with spatula until just combined (don't overmix or your muffins will be a little dense). Stir in the pecans.

Pour the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes, or until the muffins are nicely golden-brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes then transfer onto a rack.

They taste delicious with whipped butter, lemon curd or honey.

Posted by M. at 1:01 PM