We recently hit the 7-month mark of "quarantine" in Philadelphia. Note the air quotes -- restaurants have been open for outdoor dining for a while, and indoor dining recently began at 25% capacity (even though a handful of restaurants are choosing not to participate). Non-essential businesses have progressively reopened with strict guidelines, including the Fashion District which had its grand opening but months before COVID-19 hit the states. Schools have been completely virtual, though my Facebook feed has been flooded with photos of friends from across the bridge in Jersey sending their children back into the buildings. I've been teaching virtually since March 17, and anticipate my charter school won't be going back to the building for the remainder of the year even if the district starts a hybrid model after Thanksgiving, as the rumors dictate.
Y'all. Remember when this thing first hit? A simpler time where everyone was actually concerned and took this thing seriously? When places like grocery stores had a person standing at the entrance to ensure only x-amount of people entered with a mask that covered their nose and mouth? When grocery stores didn't have disinfectant wipes, toilet paper, or baking supplies?
Yeah. The steps toward "normalcy" are happening even if the CDC indicates that the virus is rampant and there's no vaccine. I bring this up because (a) it' been on my mind a lot lately and (b, or the worst segue in the world) this recipe was developed during that time.
See, it was during this time that Bon Appetit released the Basically Guide to Better Baking with Salty Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies as the debut recipe. Naturally, I had every intention of completing every recipe in the guide, but only managed to check off two. I can remember racing down the baking aisles of multiple grocery stores in search of buckwheat flour, an ingredient that I had seen millions of times and always thought to myself, "I'll never buy that." Of course, now that it was time to buy it, every store was sold out. I had to wait a few weeks, distressed at the prospect of the ingredient never materializing, before it spontaneously re-spawned onto the shelves. I recall pushing the package into my cart with an unenergized swipe of one arm, like Kristin Bell in that one episode of "The Good Place."
When all was said and done, I had buckwheat flour at my disposal and nothing to do with it besides make these cookies over and over again. And delicious as they were, I couldn't live off cookies, and wanted to make my purchase a bit more useful. With browning bananas in my fruit bowl, I decided to go with a riff on the official "I don't have sourdough starter" confection of the pandemic: banana bread. But in muffin form!
My first effort was "strawnana," featuring some chopped strawberries mixed into the batter. And while certainly delicious, it leaned sweet and didn't contribute to the texture of the muffin. My response was to scale back the sugar in the batter and replace the strawberries with some toasted pecans, which added some crunch and nuttiness to compliment the earthy buckwheat flavor. A sprinkling of turbinado on top would ensure the muffin top has a distinctly delicious crust.
These muffins are quite delicious, if I do say so myself. The buckwheat makes for a very tender crumb. Folding in chopped banana into the already banana-y batter develops sweet, custardy pockets that pump up the flavor. As someone who doesn't have the bandwidth in the morning to even think about making breakfast, these muffins are the perfect pantry staple to make sure you can put something in your stomach before the work day. Buckwheat is a great source of fiber, protein, and straight-up energy, and even though it's milled, processed, and baked with other ingredients, it's still better for you than your standard muffin.
I don't know much about the composition of flours to say what would be an appropriate substitute for the buckwheat, but my immediate guesses would be rye flour, wheat flour, or even all-purpose.
If you're like me, and you need breakfast ready before you're awake, bake a batch of these muffins and store them in an airtight container, so you can have an energizing pastry while your coffee brews. Tear off pieces of the spongey, bald-cupcake and tell yourself that what you're eating is healthy because at least you woke up early enough to eat something that counts as breakfast.
With mornings for muffins,
~c.j.
BUCKWHEAT BANANA NUT MUFFINS
PREP TIME: 10 mins
BAKE TIME: 30-40 mins
YIELD: 12 muffins
INGREDIENTS
1 c. (120 g) chopped pecans
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 c. (100 g) granulated sugar
1/2 c. (100 g) dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 very ripe bananas, divided
1 c. (125 g) buckwheat flour
1 c. (125 g) + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c. turbinado sugar
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Prepare a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a small skillet, toast the pecans over medium heat until darkened and fragrant, 3-5 minutes. Remove the pecans from the skillet and set aside. In the same skillet, melt butter and swirl with a spoon until browned, 5-7 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool.
One cooled, add butter to a large bowl, and mix thoroughly with sugar and brown sugar. Once combined, whisk in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla. Add 3 bananas to the bowl and mix thoroughly, mashing the bananas.
In a medium bowl, whisk together buckwheat flour, 1 c. (125 g) all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Slowly add to the butter-sugar mixture, folding to combine.
Chop the remaining banana and add to a small bowl with about 3/4 c. (90 g) of the pecans. Toss in remaining 1 tbsp flour to fully coat banana and pecans (this is so they don't sink to the bottom of the muffins). Add floured bananas and pecans to the muffin batter and gently fold with a rubber spatula to incorporate. Evenly distribute the batter into the cavities of the muffin tin. Top each muffin with the remaining pecans and about 1 tsp each of turbinado sugar.
Bake in the center rack of the oven until just set and a toothpick comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes. (Err on the side of checking them at 30 minutes, since there's nothing worse than a dry muffin -- ahhhhhh). Remove from the oven and allow to cool before devouring.
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