Rain Showers and Banana Muffins

I love all the rain we've gotten these past few weeks. I know some people don't like it to be grey and dreary, but I think it makes everything look so vibrant! Plus, it has two fantastic benefits:

1) It will make the leaves change colors more vibrantly
2) It's a good excuse to curl up with a mug of hot cocoa or tea and some backgammon!

I've also had the pleasure of hosting my sister's bridal shower recently. She's getting married in December, and while it seemed like forever away in the summer, things are snowballing quite nicely now, and I'm getting really excited!

I'm not really used to hosting things (I think the last thing I planned was my 13th birthday party), but I knew I wanted the shower to be pretty low key, but still elegant. I wanted it to have an autumnal feel, with seasonal foods that would be tasty and filling, with only some subtle decorative touches like beautiful orange roses from the grocery store. I'm planning to break up the components into a few posts, starting with the real crowd pleaser (other than the cinnamon scones, which I bought at the grocery store, and thus they don't count).

--Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping--
(adapted from Bakesale Betty and Bon Appetit 2008, adapted into muffins by a comment on the site)*

For bread:


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour   
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium bananas)   
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water


for topping:


2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. group cinnamon
2 1/2 Tbsp. packed dark brown sugar




 -Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
-In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

-In a large bowl, whisk together the banana, eggs, oil, honey, and water.
-Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir well. 

 

-Scoop batter into muffin tins (either greased or with muffin cups) until each well is about 2/3 full. 
       *I recently figured out that an ice cream scoop works incredibly well for this purpose. Who knew?

-In a small bowl, mix together topping ingredients. Sprinkle evenly over each muffin.
-Bake for 25 minutes 

I love this recipe for a lot of reasons. In terms of practicality, it's great. You don't need to pull out a mixer, just a spoon will do the trick, and you only dirty one measure cup and set of spoons! If you can't already tell, I'm one of those messy cooks.


Also, you can make this recipe as organic/not organic as you want and it's still pretty foolproof. Organic bananas? Go for it! Farm fresh eggs, easy!  I've just gotten into organic flour recently . . . . I'm mostly into organic fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meats, but flour IS made from grain and such a staple of our diet that I've tried to bring that into my family as well. Also, I highly recommend organic, un-dyed paper cups for the muffins. Not only eco-friendly, but a nice rustic touch, don't you think?




*I KNOW I got this from a blogsite, it's just been so long I've forgotten which one. If anyone remembers, please please tell me and I'll credit them properly.


All photos by me!