banana walnut muffins with cinnamon crumb topping

This week was exhausting, people... like borderline unbearable. I've been working almost every day, which is a big transition for me. Two days this week, I had to be in at 5am. Both those days, I passed out once I got home.. while it was still light out. Hence, I've been semi radio silent even though I keep saying things will be posted on my blog "soon". Sorry, a girl's gotta sleep. But, instead of resuming faceplant into pillow right now, I'm blogging from bed.. in the dark.. with the John Mayer Where the Light Is concert playing on my t.v. Yes, this is real life.

When asked to come in to work at 5am, I never want to show up empty-handed. So, instead of getting a solid 8 hours of sleep, I did a little test-baking on Tuesday night prior to my 3:30am wakeup. I adapted my Black and White, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe and present you with this:

Banana Walnut Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping
Yields about 28-30 muffins

INGREDIENTS
Banana Walnut Muffin
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white, granulated sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups mashed ripened bananas (about 5-6 medium-sized bananas)
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Cinnamon Crumb Topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup white, granulated sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into chunks


DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pan(s) with cupcake liners. 
2. Prepare Cinnamon Crumb Topping. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugars, and cinnamon. With a pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter until you have large pea-sized crumbs. You can also do this with your hands, but I find a pastry cutter easier, cleaner, and keeps the butter cold. Place this bowl into the refrigerator.
3. Prepare the Banana Walnut Muffin batter. In large bowl, combine the dry ingredients-- flour, white sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a smaller bowl, combine wet ingredients-- eggs, canola oil, mashed bananas. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, carefully stirring until there is no more visible dry ingredients. Do not overmix. Fold in chopped walnuts until evenly dispersed.
4. Put it all together. Fill the cupcakes liners 2/3 full with the batter. Fill the remaining 1/3, up to the rim of the liner, with the crumb topping (about a heaping Tbsp). Gently pat down the crumb topping into the batter.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean. I also like to test by using my fingertips to gently pressing onto one to see if it is firm enough-- it should spring back a little bit when it's done.
6. Remove muffins from cupcake pans and place on a large tray or cooling rack. Serve warm. Can also be stored in an airtight container once cooled.

banana pudding

You know what they say.. When life gives you ripe bananas, make banana pudding. Okay, maybe that's just a personal motto. It's a good one though, right? Duh, don't answer that.

On my first trip to NYC, my sister brought me to Magnolia Bakery and made me try the banana pudding. OH MY GOODNESS. It was like heaven in a cup. Every bite seemed like it was even better than the one before it. It's so filling and deliciously decadent that a small cup is all I need. I never knew a small cup could seem so large. And even then, as stuffed as I am, I just can't seem to stop eating it if it's in front of me. It is seriously that good. I'm pretty sure I got drunk off that pudding once. Like food drunk that makes you deliriously happy. Good times.

The recipe for Magnolia Bakery's Banana Pudding is all over the web (like here). The first time I made banana pudding at home, I obviously used their recipe so I could relive that life-changing banana pudding experience. Over time, I've unintentionally created my own banana pudding recipe. When I'm missing an ingredient, I tend to find a way to do without it while still fulfilling my craving. That's what probably happened here. Sweetened condensed milk isn't exactly on my weekly grocery list, if you know what I mean. But honestly, I'm not going to tell you not to make it the Magnolia way. There's no denying that pudding is yum.

My banana pudding is a little lighter and more airy compared to Magnolia's recipe, but the flavor is still there. I can't detect too much of a difference-- but I'm also not a picky pudding eater. I just need the Nilla wafers. Hell yes. Those are magical in pudding.

With my recipe, you also don't really have to do much measuring if you buy the ingredients in the indicated volumes. I like to be lazy and not bring out a bazillion things I'll have clean up afterwards.

Once you see how easy banana pudding is to whip up, your ripe (perhaps, on the cusp of over-ripened) bananas will never see the trash. No cooking, no baking. 5 ingredients that will blow your mind and, hopefully, make you smile.

Banana Pudding
Yields 1 large bowl of pudding, serves however many people you think that feeds. 

INGREDIENTS
4 ripe bananas, sliced (Use at least good, medium-sized bananas. I got about 3 cups sliced.)
3.4oz box vanilla instant pudding mix
2 cups (1 pint) cold fat free milk
2 cups (1 pint) whipping cream (I used the regular whipping cream but you can use heavy whipping cream also)
11-12oz box vanilla wafers

DIRECTIONS
1. Reserve 1 cup of the vanilla wafers. This will be used to top the whole shabang.
2. As indicted by the box of instant pudding, whisk milk and instant pudding mix together in a medium bowl until it is soft set-- about 5 minutes. Then refrigerate while you prepare all your other ingredients. The longer you allow the pudding to set, the better.
3. Slice bananas if you haven't done already. Also, in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or a large bowl with a hand mixer, whip together the whipping cream until stiff peaks. Note: Start your hand/stand mixer on low and then increase to medium speed. Do not shoot straight to medium or there will be problems.. messy problems.
4. When your pudding looks more like a medium set, you are ready to use it. At least 5-10 minutes in the refrigerator. 
5. With a spatula, fold in about 1/3 of the whipped cream into the pudding mixture until there are no pudding streaks. Then add the vanilla pudding mixture directly into the bowl of the remaining 2/3 whipped cream. Continue folding the mixture until, again, no streaks and it all looks cohesive.
6. In a large bowl, layer the vanilla wafers, banana, and pudding mixture. I like to go in that order, and I usually get at least 3-4 layers. The number of layers will depend on what size bowl or dish you use. Just make sure you end with a layer of pudding on top.
7. With your hands, crush the reserved 1 cup of vanilla wafers over the very top of the layered pudding to finish it off. 
8. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 5 hours. Overnight is even better.
9. After the pudding has been sufficiently refrigerated, you are ready to serve it up. Or grab and spoon and dive right in. Do not let pudding sit out. Continue to refrigerate leftovers.

The pudding mixture might seem somewhat too loose when layering. Don't worry about that. If you whipped your cream into stiff peaks and gently folded in the pudding (completely but not overdone), you are good. Just be nice to the pudding and it will be nice to you.. in about 5 hours. 

And, after refrigerating overnight..

As you can see, the pudding continues to set as it refrigerates for all those hours. It fluffs up and all that whipped cream creates a really light texture. My favorite part is getting a bite of a vanilla wafer. The wafers soften into this cake-like deliciousness that is so so amazing. Nom.

I made this last night, had it for breakfast this morning, and probably could have devoured at least half the bowl in one sitting. I resisted. Self-control is a bitch.

If you don't want to make banana pudding right now, there is something wrong with you and we probably shouldn't be friends. Just kidding.. kind of.

Goodnight, lovelies.

black and white, chocolate chip banana bread

I had to put the comma in between "white" and "chocolate", as not to mislead you to believe this includes white chocolate. White chocolate and banana? I'm sorry, but ew.

Instead, slices of this banana bread resemble those adorable black and white cookies. Well, I suppose this is more like black and yellow. Whatever. 1/2 chocolate banana (the black) and 1/2 banana chocolate chip (the chocolate studded white)-- make this only if you want trick people into thinking you are a super awesome baker without having to do much.

Black and White, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Yields 1 loaf

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white, granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup mashed ripened banana
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted

DIRECTIONS 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients-- flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, oil, and mashed banana. Add wet mixture to dry mixture. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to gently stir everything together until just incorporated. There should not be any visible "dry".
4. Reserve about 1/3 of the mixture by pouring back into the "wet" bowl. 
5. To the other 2/3 of the mixture, fold in chocolate chips. Then, pour this chocolate chip mixture into the greased loaf pan. Use the spatula to spread out this layer as evenly as possible.
6. To the reserved 1/3 banana mixture, stir in the unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder. It will look like a thick, gooey chocolate batter.
7. Add the chocolate banana batter to the loaf pan, on top of the chocolate chip banana layer. You can use a spatula again to spread the chocolate layer. Or, with a knife, I use the sharp point to "cut" into the top layer and swirl around until it looks about even. This will give a pretty marbled look on top.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Then remove loaf pan from the oven and allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes. the loaf should start pulling away from the pan as it cools. Flip the banana bread loaf out of the pan and then sit it right-side up again to finish cooling. If it is too warm, it might crumble as you do this. The longer you allow the banana bread to cool in the pan, the easier it will be to flip out.
10. When mostly cooled, slice with a sharp knife/ bread knife and serve.
11. Wrap whatever you do not eat with plastic wrap. This can also be frozen for up to 3 months.