Banana Muffins Too Good To Be Vegan

I've long had a banana muffin recipe baked up by Giada on one of her television cooking shows and it is the best banana muffin recipe in the world. Don't just take my word for it. The many people I served it to agree and nearly all have either gone off with the recipe or written me to ask for it.

My two cats love
watching Giada.

What makes this muffin recipe so different is that it is all about the banana--at least that was Giada's claim when she created the formula. I have to admit that she made a good point. While there are a few spices in the batter, the main ingredient is bananas so ripe they are black and ugly and look like they should be tossed in the garbage.

The blacker, the
better.

Well, I had some bananas that looked just like that sitting on my table so I wondered, could I veganize the recipe and still have the great banana taste of the original product. I figured it was worth a try. If the end result was horrid, I'd just toss it all out--which in any other scenario I'd have done with those nasty-looking bananas anyway.

Bananas should be so ripe
they mash up into a slurry.

The muffins smelled great baking. They looked high and light in the muffin cups. The taste? Amazing. I think they are every bit as good as the real thing and maybe even a little  better. I fed them to some friends who stopped by who just happened to be fans of the original recipe. "Are they as good?" I questioned. They didn't answer right away but rolled their eyes and kept eating. They did manage to shake their heads, "yes" so I knew the veganized version was a winner.

Since the oven had warmed up the house, I opened the front door, never realizing I'd let that warm, banana bready smell escape into the outdoors. While my friends and I were scarfing down most of the warm banana muffins and tea, I just happened to look out the screen door and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but half the neighborhood standing in line for a sample. "Sorry, gang, the recipe only makes a dozen and we've already gobbled them up."

Whip these up yourselves and tell me what you think. If you make them, I suggest you leave your front door closed.

BANANA MUFFINS

Into a quart bowl put:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup sugar

Stir to mix the ingredients together.

In another bowl put:

1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tsp. vanilla
2 bananas, very ripe and thoroughly mashed

Mix these ingredients and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix everything together by hand. Do not overmix or the muffins will be tough and not light and airy. Divide the batter into 12 muffin cups and bake on the middle rack until the tops are golden, about 25 minutes at 325 degrees F.

Transfer the muffins to a cooling rack as soon as you can handle them or the bottoms will sweat and ruin your perfect muffin.

Makes 12

Vegans love sweet things as much as non-vegans do