Espresso Banana Muffins

When I was a student at the University of Texas, I used to love the banana espresso shakes at Quackenbush’s Cafe which was located right across the street from the side of campus where I spent my time. You could get the standard banana and espresso blended into a rich, ice cream shake, or you could add peanut butter. I soon realized what an incredible thing it was to taste espresso and banana at the same time. Our local Cafe Pacha makes a similar beverage, but they keep it on the lighter side with just banana, ice, milk, and espresso and no ice cream. Since I already had a history with this flavor combination, I knew I was going to like these muffins as soon as I saw the recipe. This is from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, and it’s simple enough that I could bake these regularly and enjoy a continuous supply.

The obvious first ingredient here is overripe bananas. For some reason, we never have extra bananas in our house. They’re always eaten before reaching that overripe-I should bake something with these state. In fact, when I want to bake anything involving bananas, I have to plan ahead, remember to buy extra, and allow them ripen. So, I’m not even sure how it came to pass, but last week I was in the unusual situation of actually having extra, quickly ripening bananas. It was kind of exciting to get to make a banana recipe on the spur of the moment. Since I was in the spirit of using up those mushy bananas and baking something unplanned, I had to substitute a couple of other ingredients to avoid a trip to the grocery store. The recipe calls for white, whole-wheat flour which I didn’t have. I used half unbleached, white flour and half whole wheat flour. It also calls for a cup and a quarter of chopped walnuts. I only had about half a cup, so I added some almonds and pecans as well. Everything else, including the plain yogurt and espresso powder, I had on hand.

As I mixed everything together and scooped the batter into the muffin tin, the aroma of espresso mingling with banana hinted at how delicious these were going to be. Fresh out of the oven, I could barely wait to have a taste. And, one of these muffins with a steaming cup of cappuccino was perfection. Now that I’ve tried these once, I may be buying extra bananas every week in hopes of finding overripe ones that need to be used a few days later.

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