"do you know the muffin man?"; or the banana crunch muffin adventure

so i'm a muffin or ahem cupcake kind of girl. it's just how i was raised and how i distinguish my best friends from mere acquantiances. we brunch. lunch? never. breakfast, always! and i'm not just talking about a muffin platter--what could be more complete or satisfying than an omlette? or its italian sister the fritatta? norwegian waffles? danish museli? fresh fruit smoothie? chocolate filled pancakes? but back to muffins. . .

owen has definitely inhereted this muffin gene--in fact, he's my favorite muffin accomplice. last night we decided to try ina's banana crunch muffin. i'd seen the brunch episode a while ago and thought--what's not to love? chock full of coconut, granola, walnuts and both mashed and sliced bananas owen and i were all over it!

from the start we made some modifications--2 sticks of butter?! i thought i'd try some of my cooking light tricks and pass up one stick for a mixture of buttermilk and sour cream. three cups of white flour? we substituted one cup with some whole wheat flour and for the rest used our favorite king arthurs' unbleached.

now it was cooking time. the entire counter was filled with our ingredients--and the batter was too delish (and massive)! owen kept poking his fingers in saying "oooh just one more taste!" and then with each addition of the "goodies" shouted "wait! there are MORE goodies!" as we poured generous cups of walnuts, sweet coconut and chunky granola. the Pièce de résistance? the dried crunchy banans we sprinkled on top. since we had sooo much batter we actually filled 24 muffin cups! i imagined a freezer stocked full of ready-to-go treats. . .

so, the verdict? not surprisingly my additions made for a flat topped muffin--ina advised to fill to the top and my cookiing light recipes always recommend 3/4 full. but they were amazingly moist and texture-wise i can't imagine more butter would have added much. but the taste. perhaps we were all battered out, but they were disappointingly if not surprisingly sweet. the recipe called for 2 cups of sugar--which i would have cut but my food science wasn't sure where to go with that.the suspect? the organics line maple walnut granola--it was cloyingly sweet.

but the adventure and the assessment was well worth it. we had a fun breakfast for dinner with a spinach omelette to balance it all out.when i asked owen what he thought he said "yeah, mom, that granola IS too sweet."

i think i love ina's philosophy but not necessary her palette. first and foremost food is love and generosity and a gift--this is why barefoot's one of my fave foodtv shows. i love that she makes thoughtful choices about what needs to be fresh and homemade and what is just as good from the jar and that she always takes a hot bubble bath before company arrives. further, her presentation adds to the dish and suggests the herb or flavor of the meal--she's big on "seeing" what it is she's eating. for this muffin dish i love that she uses not only mashed bananas but chunks so you really taste fresh bananas and the banana chips prepare your mouth for the morsels to come. i also love the chunkiness of it all--i'd definitely opt for a simple trader joe's (or even better--a homemade or simple simon's bag) of granola and i'm not at all sure the coconut added much in the way of texture. i think rather than play with this recipe i'll take her additions and add them to my already modified favorite banana-bran muffins in this go-to cooking light cookbook.

and now to sing muffin man from from our favorite new jazz cd. . .