Banana Oat Breakfast Muffins

Well hello again my friends. Lately I have been skipping on breakfast. The most important meal of the day (they say). I have not been doing it on purpose, but sleep has been calling me. That and I don't want to buy breakfast before work every morning. So this weekend I made a huge batch of muffins that I can grab on the way out the door and skip the drive-thru line up. 

They turned out wonderful and hopefully filling. 

Now these babies can be made more healthy by skipping some of the sugar and replacing it with applesauce (would also make them more moist, double bonus) but I went traditional. If you are anything like me, you buy bananas and never eat them. At any given time I have 10 bananas in the freezer that never got eaten. That's why I went with a banana recipe. And I doubled that recipe and got rid of ALL my frozen bananas! Eight made it in to the muffins, two into the garbage. The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups so I doubled it to 3 cups mashed up. 

In a seperate bowl mix all your dry ingredients up. Like I said, double it up! Flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, salt (not quite doubled), cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set this big bowl aside. 

In your mixer, get your mushy bananas, melted butter, vanilla, eggs, and I added some smooth peanut butter all combined. 

Now, you are supposed to add wet into dry, but I already had my wet in the mixer so I just went and added my dry and mixed it on low until it was just combined.  I sprayed my muffin tins with cooking oil and then just dropped some mix about 2/3 of the way up the tin. My recipe made just under three dozen muffins, so have three tins prepared if you have them available. 

Pretty stiff batter, could probably use some applesauce to sweeten and moisten. I baked at 375F for 8 minutes, rotated my trays for even cooking (did two trays at a time), another 8-9 and then  they were all done. Poke with a toothpick or wood skewer to make sure it comes out dry and you are all done. I could see a bit of browning on the sides of the muffins so I knew I didn't want them in any longer. 

I like my muffins to have big muffin tops. They are clearly the best part. Dump these puppies out (with the cooking spray they should slip out nice and easy) and set on a cooling tray to rest. Make sure to eat at least one warm. 

Delicious. 

Here's the rules!

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup Quick Cooking Oats

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 cups Mashed Bananas

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1/3 cup Butter, melted

1/2 cup Peanut butter (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F and grease muffin tins. 

Mash your bananas (three to four depending on size). 

In a seperate bowl, mix all of your dry ingredients. Set aside

In mixer, mix all other ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Drop mixture in to muffin tins and bake for 15-18 minutes, until toothpick comes out dry from centre of muffin. 

Remove from muffin tin and cool on cooling rack. 

Gma's Super Sticky Cinnamon Buns

Yesterday was a very wasted day off.  I didn't get out of bed until 11; it was pretty alright.  I did however decide that I would be making cinnamon buns today.  I went out with a flat tire last night and bought all the secret ingredients to make my Grandma's famous sticky cinnamon buns.  Okay maybe they are just famous to me.  They are my favorite.  Sticky, soft, sweet. *Drool* I even surprised her with a phone call to get her "recipe".  I say "recipe" because she doesn't measure anything.  Her baking still turns out perfect every time. I was determined that mine would be as well.  I did not disappoint myself.  Usually I like to bake and then bring treats to my coworkers. Not with these puppies! These are all mine! Well, and maybe Chris can have some too.  Maybe.

So this is what food porn looks like

You ready?  Let's do this.

I think the only thing that my Grandma does different than most recipes that I looked at online is that she uses a generous helping of corn syrup.  Then of course I added my own twist. A twist called Skor bits.  You honestly can't ever go wrong with Skor bits.

For Gma's recipe she said to start with her regular bread dough recipe.  Her bread and buns are always so fluffy so bread dough I made.  I will let you know now, if you only have an hour to kill then you CANNOT make these. Bread takes time and love.  So give it both.  I use my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the bread hook to mix my dry ingredients (flour, yeast, sugar, and salt) and then a separate small bowl to mix up the wet (egg, milk, butter).  Mix the wet into the dry in the mixer for about a minute and then get your hands dirty! Isn't my mixer beautiful? Thanks to my Dad, it is very beautiful.

Knead on a floured surface for 3-4 minutes or until the dough feels elastic.  After this, you will realize that there is a muscle in your forearm that is used specifically for kneading and it will let you know that it exists.

Not ready to eat yet.

Put some oil in a large bowl and return your round, elastic, dough ball to that bowl and cover with a tea towel.  You need it to about double in size before you can move on to the next step so find a warm spot in the kitchen, place your covered bowl there, and find something to do for the next hour or so.  In my case, it was taking the tire off my vehicle and patching it up (with the help of Chris).

Ready for the secret step?  Its the corn syrup.  After the dough has risen enough start dressing up a non stick 9x13" pan.  Generously cover it in butter, including the sides.  Give it a sprinkle of brown sugar and cinnamon.  And now the magic.  Drizzle the bottom of the pan with corn syrup.  You don't need to cover the bottom or anything, but if you want sticky this is the trick.

That's the ticket.

Time to cover another counter with flour. Dust some flour out, pop your fluffy dough out of the greasy bowl and roll it out to a roughly 10x18" rectangle. Now, mine was not a perfect rectangle.  The two end pieces looked a little derpy, but I tasted one of them first and they were just right.

Rectangle Enough

In a bowl, mix together your brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and cut in some more butter for good measure.  Melt more butter (because no one ever said cinnamon buns were good for you) and brush it all over your almost rectangle.  Take your sugar and spice bowl and dump that shit out on your butter covered polygon. Make sure to distribute it evenly so no crevice of your bun is missing out on the party.  You can add extras at this step as well.  Like I mentioned before, I chose Skor bits as my surprise.  Some people like raisins.  It's up to you, my friend.

Cinnamon, sugar, butter, Skor party!

Now we roll.  Start on one of the long sides and roll it as tight as you can, pinching the edge together to it stays closed.

Almost ready to eat

Cut from the end about 1 1/2" with a super sharp knife.  You should get twelve buns.  Mine weren't all the same size, but I did manage to get twelve out of it.  Another success! Have the corn syrup concoction close by and place your cut buns in its gooey mess as you are slicing.  Should go without saying, but they go face up. They will not be touching on all sides yet, but that is okay! Place them out 3x4 evenly spaced.  Once they are in the pan, find that warm place and cover them with the tea towel again.  More waiting.  This time Chris and I went to Canadian Tire and spent too much money. When I returned, about an hour later, they were lovely, fluffy little swirls.

Before: boring

After: Amazing

Ready to bake!  Preheat your oven to 325 Fahrenheit.  Corn syrup is the magic, but it burns very easily.  Bake this on one of the upper racks.  It should take you about 20-25 minutes, but I flipped my pan half way through so I had even cooking.  Once the dough feels cooked and has a little colour to the top you are done.  Get a cookie sheet and flip your buns upside down onto it.  That way all the ooey gooey sugar butter can soak all the way back up to the top. Just for a couple of minutes.

The "re-goo"

And now for the big reveal!

Ready to eat!

I also may have scraped all the gooey stuff from the pan back on top of the buns.  No wasting here!  Want another picture? Yeah I thought so too.

A perfect morsel

Now for the rules!

Ingredients

Dough
- 4 cups of flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons melted butter

Filling
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons of butter (plus 2 to melt)
- Skor bits
- Corn syrup

Directions
In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix together melted butter, milk, and egg.  Pour wet ingredients into the dry and beat with an electric mixer on low until just incorporated.

Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes, until dough is elastic.  Place dough in to a well oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel, and let rise for 1-2 hours.

To make filling, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter and set aside.

Prepare the 9x13" pan by covering with butter and then sprinkling with brown sugar and cinnamon before drizzling with corn syrup.  Set aside.

Once the dough has risen, roll it out on a floured surface to a 10x18" rectangle.  Brush the melted butter out on the surface and cover with filling mix.  Roll tightly width-wise, sealing the ends.  Use a sharp knife to cut the dough roll in about 1 1/2" pieces and place in the prepared pan.  Should get 12 buns.

Cover buns with a tea towel and allow to rise again.  About one hour.

Once dough has risen again, preheat oven to 325 F and bake on upper rack for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from oven and flip upside down on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes.  Remove pan and let cool.

I hope you enjoy my Gma's recipe!

Love,

Jen