Christmas Morning Banana Muffins

Sometimes you have to trust your instincts. In this case, when something doesn’t look like muffin batter, it probably isn’t muffin batter. We had had some extra sour cream leftover from chilli night and I had this old recipe sitting around on my computer (since October 2009, apparently) that I had been meaning to try out for ages. So it seemed rather fitting that I bake some sour cream banana muffins for Christmas morning breakfast.

I followed the instructions and measurements to a tee fromhere (except halving the sugar and reducing the sour cream to 2/3 cup since it was all we had left, of course) but or some reason my ‘batter’ was more like a dough. In fact, my just awoken mother asked me why I baking mashed potatoes… That, is what my ‘batter’ looked like. Despite this, I just optimistically thought that everything would sort itself out in the oven. It did not. My ‘muffins’, if you could call them that, remained identical in shape as when I put them in the oven. As oblong clumps of dough. 

As upsetting as it was to know that the centrepiece of Christmas breakfast was an utter failure, this cloud came with a silver lining. I would have been more than happy to toss this recipe into the ‘do not attempt ever again’ pile, that is, if they didn’t taste so darn amazing. They had just enough banana flavour, and the full fat sour cream added great richness to them. So if I just ignored the fact that they were supposed to be muffins, I had actually made quite impressive dense scone biscuit type things…

Maybe the banana wasn’t ripe enough (it was of prime eating, but not baking, ripeness), or the extra sour cream and sugar would have made a difference. But even with half the prescribed amount of sugar as the original recipe, these were more than sufficiently sweet. The original recipe actually recommends dipping the muffin tops into melted butter and then some cinnamon sugar, now that would have been an overload.

I do want to attempt these again, but with water added until I get a batter, not a dough. They have more than enough flavour and sweetness so that water wouldn’t dilute the taste down too much, so that’s not a worry. Guess we’ll have to wait until I have more sour cream sticking around to give these a second try!

Sour Cream Banana Muffins

Yield: 15 muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup sour cream (I used full fat, but that’s definitely not necessary)
• 1 large mashed banana
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Enough water to get a batter consistency

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk egg and add sugar. Continue whisking until thick. Add the melted butter in two or three additions. Whisk in the sour cream in two additions, followed by the mashed banana. Add the vanilla.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients; gently fold with a spatula, being careful not to overmix.
5. Add enough water to reach ‘batter’ consistency
6. Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean and the tops are lightly golden.
7.  Let cool completely on a rack

Per muffin:

132 calories | 8.2g sugar | 4.9g fat