Banananana Muffins

The goal for today was to make something with pastry flour. Jeffrey was kind enough to give me a whole lotta' soft wheat (which becomes whole wheat pastry flour when ground) a couple of weeks ago, and I have been studiously putting off making anything with it.

BUT NO MORE.

Looking back at the original recipe, I made some pretty wild deviations. Here is the original. These muffins are incredibly moist, especially when you consider that there is no butter or oil. Feel free to cut back on the sugar a bit, and you don't need quite so much baking powder.

If you don't have any soft wheat or whole wheat pastry flour, go ahead and use regular whole wheat flour. Or, if Armageddon is upon us, use white flour. (Just don't tell me about it.)

Grandma Grabbert put a poem into the Burlington cookbook about following the recipe:

I didn't have potatoes, so I substituted rice.

I didn't have paprika, so I used another spice.

I didn't have tomato sauce, so I used tomato paste.

A whole can, not half; I don't believe in waste.

My friend gave me this recipe, she said you couldn't beat it.
There must have been SOMETHING wrong with it, I couldn't eat it.

So there ya have it. Not all substitutions turn out as good as these muffins. Usually (I swear it's true) I try the recipe exactly as it is the first time, so I don't end up writing off too many recipes because of my wild ideas on how to improve them before I even make it one time. But, seriously, the original recipe had an ingredient list 4 pages long. I wasn't going to embark on such a crazy adventure. So I shortened it by combining similar ingredients.

Banana Muffins

1 1/4 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 C rolled oats

1 T baking powder

1/2 t salt

3/4 C yogurt

1/4 C applesauce

1/2 C maple syrup

1 egg

1 t vanilla

2 large bananas, mashed

1/4 C chopped pecans

Mix dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Mix wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Make a well with the dry ingredients and pour the wet bowl into it. Fold until barely combined and spoon into muffin cups. Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.