Baking endeavours

I think of myself a baker rather than a cooker. And granted it usually takes me a couple times to get something right - I find that baking has a less chance of this. Ha. Lately I have been obsessed with cupcakes, but since I would rather not polish down a Baker's Dozen myself, I refrain unless I have something to actually bake for or need a practice run just to be sure. Plus, baking is much easier to make into individual sizes than a big meal. When I was single, I never cooked for myself - as I didn't want to have the same leftovers for a week straight. It's strange, cos I could live a week straight on having cereal for supper... but that leftover lasagna bake? No thanks!

This weekend I made pumpkin spice chocolate chop muffins, and banana muffins. I hadn't originally planned to make the pumpkin spice muffins, but my BF's family was getting together and I figured I should make something for it. It's fairly easy - 1 spice cake box mix, 1 can pumpkin, 1 cup water, 1 egg white. You mix and dump into muffin pans sprayed with baking spray, cook the desired minutes on the cake box and there ya go. And it's pretty healthy too, something like almost 100 cal per muffin. No one ate them during the meal, but brought some with them on their way home. Success!

I also made banana muffins, with a couple leftover bananas I didn't get to last week. They turned out well, but I should have decreased the cooking time by 5 minutes. I will share below, and refer you to where I found it. I also changed a couple things, but have updated those from the original recipe.

Seriously Healthy Banana Muffins
http://healthiefoodie.blogspot.com/2009/02/seriously-healthy-banana-muffins.html?showComment=1315313944895#c7578158618076690309

Serving size: 12 big muffins (will have some leftover batter)

Ingredients

• 2 very ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup regular sugar
• 1/2 cup Blue Agave Nectar
• 2 tablespoons light butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream sugar with butter (this helps to get all the butter blended smoothly!)
3. Add egg, and beat lightly to get the mixture to fluff up a little.
4. Add the 4 bananas, already smashed up in a separate bowl (a pastry fork works really well for mashing and mixing the bananas if you don't feel like busting out the mixer)
5. Add the vanilla, and applesauce.
6. Then add all the remaining dry ingredients and mix well.
7. Pour mixture into pan sprayed with cooking spray so they don't stick! (12-cup muffin pan)
8. Bake for around 25 minutes. You'll be able to tell it's all ready when the color is good and golden brown, or when a knife comes out clean from the center.
9. Remove muffins or loaves from pans to cool on a rack.

 Happy Baking!