turbinado sugar crunch

My sis­ter and I, we are only a year and three months apart, but are polar oppo­sites. I was a very chatty child, who fol­lowed strangers around so much that my par­ents teth­ered me on one of those telephone-cord-leashes when­ever we went out. Twiggy, on the other hand, never let go of their hands. On sum­mer days I liked to stay in and draw on every piece of paper I could get my hands on, whilst Twigs went away for dance com­pe­ti­tions in Vegas and Dis­ney­land. It takes me every ounce of effort to drag myself to the gym three times a week, but Twigs will feel slug­gish if she misses one day. I like to wing stuff and see what hap­pens, while she fol­lows direc­tions pre­cisely.
Which brings me to my point: I can make a mean ragu but can’t bake for shit; Twigs rarely cooks but she’s a god­dess when armed with but­ter and a whisk.

Some­times Twigs comes over to bor­row our oven because she doesn’t like to dirty her landlord’s place. Don and I both rejoice at such occa­sions because she’ll leave us with some delec­table sam­ples. Sure, she leaves a mess some­times (one thing in com­mon with ALL Nguyen women is that we make big messes), but she also leaves us some of her famous red vel­vet cup­cakes with tangy cream cheese frost­ing. This time, she left me with her crunchy banana nut muffins and a recipe card. It was pretty frickin’ awe­some for banana nut muffins, so I’ll leave you with the recipe too. The turbinado sugar crunch will surely get you hooked.

Crunchy Banana Muffins — makes 12

1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp bak­ing soda
1 tsp bak­ing pow­der
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 bananas, ripened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup melted but­ter
1/3 cup roasted pecans, chopped
1/3 cup turbinado sugar

Pre­heat oven to 375 degrees.

First, you gotta let your bananas ripen until it’s bor­der­line rot­ting. Well, not so much rot­ten, but brown and ugly.

Then you mash them until you get some banana goop. You should have about a cup of banana goop.

Stir in sugar and mix. Then crack in an egg and mix to com­bine. Repeat with melted butter.

Com­bine flour, bak­ing soda, bak­ing pow­der, sea salt and whisk with a fork.

Pour in banana bat­ter into dry bowl, as well as your pecan bits.

Mix to com­bine, but do not over­mix! Over­mix­ing will equal flat muffins, and nobody likes flat muffins.

Pop in the lin­ers into the muf­fin tin…

And fill up to the 2/3 mark with bat­ter. Once all wells are filled, tap it a few times on the counter to set. Sprin­kle gen­er­ously with turbinado sugar and bake for 18–20 min­utes, or until puffed, golden, and passes the tooth­pick test.

Cool for 5 min­utes, and take a deep breath. Your room will smell like banana nut muffins, and that’s a treat by itself. Them nom on these beau­ties with some black coffee.

To store, keep in an air­tight lid and refrig­er­ate. Will keep for up to a week.

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Tagged as: desserts, meat-less, recipes