Last Day for Inspiration Month: Have a Muffin on Me!

Category: desserts, breakfast | Difficulty: easy



Sour Cream Banana Muffins

Now doesn't that inspire me to bake more? Lately, I've been reading a lot of my foodie friends' blogs about their love for baking and I have to admit that though I admire avid bakers and I like to bake myself, I still don't dabble as much into it as I do with cooking. Oh, I know how to make a box cake but is that really baking or taking short cuts? I also admit time is never on my side so I look for easy ways to whip up gourmet-like food!

But, really if I took some time, protective time as my friend Heather has told me, I could take a deeper plunge into doing more from scratch baking. Protective time? Well, that's when you take a block of time from your day to concentrate on one task until you either complete it or get to a good stopping point. I've used this technique and it really works for me during my day hours when I'm project deadline oriented.

As you know I work for several clients all with their own workload and all with their own deadlines of urgency. My job is to fit it all into an 8- to 9-hour day without missing a timeline and ensuring each customer feels their job is most important. Not an easy task to do everyday mind you, so I use protective time in which I turn off my emails to my blog and other social networking notifications, I don't answer phones, fax, or business emails during this time and I focus on what I'm doing - maybe I block out two or three hours and then I catch up with other stuff afterwards.

I'm thinking I could do the same thing with my baking because I've picked up so many wonderful recipes and believe it or not the end of the year is coming rapidly so if I can start now by the time November and December gets here I think my confidence will be on a high! December is always my "Virtual Holiday Dessert Party" where I post for the month more of my friends' favorite desserts than my own so I'm going to be calling on you bakers so get ready now! But, as far as this recipe, I found that it is pretty straightforward and easy to do. I've never liked complex recipes that I have to keep looking at my paper for every step and hoping I don't screw something up! I really like non-fussy stuff. Well anyway, I also promised you 2 for 2 and I will deliver!

Ingredients:
1 c. sugar
1 stick butter
1 egg
2 c. flour
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 very ripe bananas, mashed

Preparation:
Mix together. Put in greased muffin pans, filling 2/23 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Let cool off for 5 minutes. NOTE: You can add nuts to this recipe, what you'll need is:

1/2 c. chopped nuts
Then beat sugar and butter until light and beat in egg until smooth. Add flour and soda alternately with sour cream. Add vanilla, bananas and nuts. Divide batter among 24 paper lined muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Boy, the banana smells good and the sour cream sort of balances out the sweetness by adding a little tang.

And now for the other show stopper:



Pear Pecan Muffins

Ingredients:
3 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 c. chopped and peeled pears
1 c. chopped pecans

Preparation:
In a bowl, mix together the first 5 ingredients, then in a second bowl, mix together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Make a well in the dry ingredients; pour liquid ingredients into center of well; stir until dry ingredients are just moistened and then fold in the pears and pecans.

Fill paper lined muffin cups two-third full and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until done. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack to complete cooling.

YUMMY! in the morning for breakfast, as a snack or dessert at the end of a hard, long day!

Muffin anyone?