Lazy weekends are meant for baking sweet things for breakfast while sipping hot coffee and catching up on music podcasts. I found this recipe on 101 Cookbooks (an ever-reliable source for healthy-but-not-boring food). The muffins are sweet but not too sweet, and you can add whatever fruits (dried or otherwise) and nuts you’d like. I halved the recipe and gently folded in about a 1/2 cup of chopped fresh, tart-sweet apricots (4-5 small apricots) at the very end. The muffins ended up being very moist (even though I used a little bit less yogurt), so next time I might try tossing the fruit pieces with a bit of flour before mixing them into the batter.
These are my favorite muffins ever. The recipe is from The Cheese Board, one of my favorite places in Berkeley. It is impossible for me to separate these muffins from memories of sunny weekend mornings with John, back when we were just a couple of scruffy little college kids (who have since become slightly less scruffy little semi-adults). He makes these better than I do, probably because he is naturally heavy handed with coffee (you need really really strong coffee in the batter for these to taste good) and gentle handed when it comes to mixing things (I am a notorious over-mixer). This was my best attempt to date, probably because I used the stand mixer our friends got us. And even though my love for these muffins is inextricably linked to my own romance-fogged nostalgia, I’m pretty confident that they taste good even without the cheeseball background stories.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
In a medium bowl, combine: 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 2 mashed ripe bananas, 1/2 cup really strong brewed coffee (cooled off), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
In a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl), sift together: 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons baking powder
Add to dry ingredients: 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup sugar
Cut in (using the paddle attachment of a mixer, or a pastry blender): 1/2 cup (1 stick) of cold unsalted butter
When the butter is the size of small peas, mix in: 1 cup chocolate chips
Make a well and gently fold in banana-coffee mixture.
Scoop batter evenly into muffin pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and springy. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then on a rack.
