The Perpetual Feast

have been really hungry lately. Maybe it’s the cold, grey weather that’s been hanging around for a few days, occasionally dropping what the weather folks call a “wintery mix”. Or maybe it’s because I am working over the holidays, albeit from home. Work from home wearing sweats, while an improvement over getting dressed up to go to the office, is still work.

At any rate, I decided I need to get back into my habit of baking a dozen muffins every week to stave off the times when I feel the need to eat something satisfyingly sweet and filling. Baking also warms up the chilly kitchen. The scent of aging bananas was perfuming the kitchen, so I decided to make a variation on my standard banana bread in muffin format.  By the way, when you use bananas for bread or muffins, they should be very ripe – mine were actually black, The riper the banana, the sweeter they make the batter.

Banana Spice Muffins

3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup egg substitute
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground dry ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup raisins or currants (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F and place rack in center of oven. Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray. Whisk the flour, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl. Put the bananas into the large bowl of an electric mixer and beat them until they are well mashed. Beat in the egg substitute. Beat in the sugar.  Add the flour mixture about 1/4 cup at a time, until it is incorporated into the banana mixture.  Beat in the yogurt. Stir in the raisins if using. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.   Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan and cool on a rack. Eat warm – like I just did –  or cold.  Makes 12 muffins. There is less than a gram of fat per muffin.