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I don’t know the last time I ate a donut (I’m not counting the two bites I snuck at work on Friday when I was being tortured by the smell of Krispy Kreme’s someone brought in.)

I mean we all know donuts aren’t good for you, although Dunkin Donuts might say differently.

There are tons of those baked donuts going around the food blogs lately. Honestly though, I don’t think you can pretend a baked donut tastes like a fried one…so why bother. That’s where this recipe comes in.

I’m not pretending these are donuts. Nope. These are muffins through and through. But if you love the taste of a cinnamon sugar donut then you *might just like these too.

Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Quick bread is an American term used to denote a type of bread which is leavened with leavening agents other than yeast. Quick breads includes many cakes, brownies and cookies, as well as banana bread, beer bread, cornbread, biscuits, pancakes, scones, soda bread, and in this instance: muffins.

Pumpkin Donut Muffins

Very slightly adapted from Cait’s Plate

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makes 12 muffins

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (or omit whole wheat flour and add an additional cup of white flour)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup milk
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

Topping:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper cups.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

In a small bowl, whisk together soymilk and pumpkin puree.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture, and beat to combine.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin cup with batter and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean (about 25- 30 minutes).

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture.
Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

lemons brown bananas, make banana bread!

My mom recently decided to bestow 3 extremely brown bananas on me. I suppose not everyone would appreciate such a gesture, but I was ecstatic! It’s rare for me to remember to buy bananas, and even less likely for me to have ones ripe enough for a perfect banana bread.

If you’ve ever made banana bread with yellow bananas, you’re doing it wrong. Even ones heavily mottled with brown spots aren’t quite there. The best bananas for bread have to be brown and so soft that they’re falling apart. If you happen to have bananas in this state and don’t have time to be baking banana bread, remove the peel and put them in a ziploc in the freezer until you’re ready.


Please don’t forget to peel them before you freeze them. I made this mistake once, and that’s all it took. It’s literally impossible to remove the peel, and just messy after it defrosts. Trust me.

Anyway, I wanted to make some changes to my family’s absolute favorite banana bread recipe. I’m not one to alter perfection, but I had some buttermilk leftover from making baked chicken fingers, and didn’t want it to go to waste. I also, for some unknown reason, had the idea that I wanted to throw some polenta into the recipe to give it a little crunch.

When I first took the bread out of the oven and cut myself a slice, I wasn’t sure what to think. It wasn’t the bread I was used to, and I’m not big on change.

But when I had another taste the next day, I kind of liked the subtle, crunchier texture. I mean, it’s not the recipe from childhood, but that’s ok. I can always go back to the old recipe, but I think this one might stick around for a while.


Chocolate Chip Polenta Banana Bread

Recipe by Me

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Makes 1 loaf

1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 cup flour
1 cup polenta
1/2 cup light buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Grease bottom of a loaf pan.

Mix together sugar and egg, by hand or with mixer. Mix in bananas, butter, and buttermilk.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, polenta, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to banana mixture.

Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into loaf pan.

Bake 50-60 minutes til golden, and toothpick comes out clean.