Friday, March 11, 2011

Sour cream & olive oil banana muffins and my promise to you




This is a healthier version of the banana bread muffin I posted about a while ago. But wait!!! Don't go just because I said the word healthy! I hereby promise I will never post a "healthy" recipe unless it tastes really good and somewhat sinful. I am the kinda girl who believes that to call something dessert, it needs its fair share of butter, sugar and - more often than not - chocolate. If I'm gonna have dessert, it has to be worth the calories.



Now, I am by no means against using the occasional whole grains, dried fruits, apple sauce, honey or yogurt, as substitutes, but it is more for depth of flavor and interesting textures. Sure, your young ones will not be able to tell the difference and if you are feeding them cake, muffins or cookies on a daily basis, by all means make it a healthy snack. But in my world treats are called treats because they are supposed to be special (and not something you indulge in all the time) and a little butter and sugar will not hurt anybody. If you want healthy, give your kid an apple! Because the truth is, no matter how good a healthy cookies is and no matter how hard you try to convince me, it will never have the buttery sweetness of the real thing. And a gooey, rich homemade brownie is still a million times better for your children than the candy, soda and tons of other junk food kids are consuming daily all over the world. Especially if you bake it together as a family.






In these muffins, out go the chocolate chips and almonds of my other post, in come sour cream (yes, I am still buying tons of it to make sure my local supermarket keeps stocking up in the belief that all customers are loving this new and quite exotic product) and olive oil.

Believe me when I say you will not miss the butter in the least and the sour cream makes these the moistest muffins I have baked so far.


Last but not least, after a few requests and in an attempt to facilitate readers, I created a page with links to several conversion tables for any doubts you may have while trying out these recipes from all continents!

Ingredients
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup olive oil (or any other vegetable oil)
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups over-ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 350° degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tray. Mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Then, in a separate bowl, mix together the oil, brown and white sugar, followed by the vanilla extract, the mashed bananas, the sour cream and eggs.
Stir in the dry ingredients until they are combined and pour the batter into the muffin tray, filling only three quarters and for approximately 20-25 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack.

Adapted from the Cookbook Chronicles

8 comments:

  1. Having baked hundreds of banana muffins in my lifetime already, I can spot a good recipe from a bad one; this is an excellent recipe, worth every bit of calories!

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  2. I LOVE the tables! They're SO useful! I'm definitley going to end up popping here every day to check my conversions every time I try a new recipe!!
    Lots of love ;)
    J.

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  3. I'm definitely not one to stray away from the word "healthy" - and I believe these muffins are well worth the title!

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  4. Hi, no, I don't mind at all. I will also try to post my recipes now in both metric/volume. I am glad I could help out!
    Your banana muffins look delicious. I am sure they are very moist because of the sour cream. I still have some bananas in the freezer from since forever ago. I stopped buying them. My allergies made it easy for me to go eco friendly. My kids are not so happy about it. I am sure my son would be very happy if I baked him some muffins with the left over bananas. He loves them.

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  5. Che meraviglia! I have never found sour cream in Italy! I guess a few things must have changed in the last few years. Great recipe, healthy and delicious!

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  6. Love these! BUT - what I love most is how you keep buying the sour cream so the store buyers think they're, "on to something good here!""

    I swear I do the same thing! LOL!

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  7. These look great! Thanks for sharing!

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  8. ToB - very happy to get your expert opinion. Thanks
    Jas - hope they will be helpful
    Peggy - yes ma'am, healthy and good
    MyKintheR - bananas in the freezer are always handy
    Manu - sour cream is still quite the novelty here and I am very excited about it.
    DD&W - glad to know I am not the only crazy lady around town stocking up on hundreds of jars of things I like.
    Miri - hi!

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