One of the things I baked this weekend - banana muffins with lemon sour cream icing.
This was a beautiful weekend. Snowpocalypse II really brought out the beauty in DC – both in the snow covered landscape, and in the sense of community and neighborliness it sparked in DC residents. Snowball fights, people walking in middle of the snow-filled streets, neighbors chatting with each other as they shoveled snow – everyone was downright friendly during Snowpocalypse II. I know it’s easy for me to say that given that I live in the city and wasn’t stranded out in the suburbs due to the lack of above-ground metro access like DC Thrifty Cook, and I didn’t lose power like Mango and Tomato. But it’s heartwarming to see people breaking out of their shells in the face of the snow.
On Saturday night, I decided that I needed to get out of the house or go crazy with some serious cabin fever, so I put the call out on Facebook, Twitter, and the Adams Morgan listserv to see if anyone wanted to meet up at The Black Squirrel for drinks. To lure people out, I brought along banana muffins to share, and even ended up giving some to the Squirrel’s hungry servers.
Now, I have a hard time classifying these particular banana muffins – sometimes I want to call them cupcakes, and sometimes I want to call them muffins. I actually made them using my banana bread recipe, which is less sweet than a full-blown cake, and has a rich banana flavor. Since bananas are so sweet, I used half whole wheat flour, which gives them a slightly coarser crumb and darker flavor. I also upped the amount of salt, which helps balance the sweetness of the fruit. And unlike a lot of banana bread recipes, this one uses butter, which gives the cake a rich, almost savory note, and helps keep it moist and fluffy.
Because there’s so much flavor in the cake, it doesn’t need a lot of frosting to jazz it up – another reason that puts these confections in the muffin camp. I topped mine with sour cream and lemon icing, which helps bring out the sweet and salty notes of the banana cake. The icing has so much flavor that all you need is a thin layer – too much and it would overwhelm the cake.
Today is a snow day for me – the DC Federal Government is closed, most likely because the snowstorm has shut down above-ground Metro access and no one from the suburbs can get to work. So if you’re stuck at home and have some bananas going bad (as happens so often with supermarket bananas), then I think you should make these muffins. Then put the call out to your neighbors and see if anyone else is getting cabin fever. Meet up at someone’s house, at your favorite bar, at a local coffee shop, and bring these muffins to share. Maybe you’ll make some new friends, or find out something new about the people in your community. It’s a snow day – it’s time to be social.
You can really see the crumb here - slightly coarse, but still very light. No wonder I ate, like, four of these in a morning.
ModernDomestic 