We are coming up on six months in the desert and it occurred to me that I haven’t really shared that much about life here. At least not like I feel I did when we were in Cairo. I guess it is that Dubai is such a modern city that it doesn’t feel that different in many ways, from other places we have lived. My neighborhood is surrounded by vast desert wasteland with little in the way of plants besides natural scrub.
But, inside the walls of this gated community, we enjoy green lawns and flowering plants in abundance.
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| The view from my kitchen window. |
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| A different angle of the backyard. |
Supermarkets have everything we need, including bacon and cheese, and even some things we just want like fresh flowers, Wilton baking supplies and Jif peanut butter. I know, I know, some of you are saying that bacon and cheese are “wants” not “needs” but then you must not know me very well yet. :) After Cairo with its limited supply of green leafy vegetables, I am working on not getting spoiled by choice and trying to choose fresh foods that haven’t been flown in from the other side of the world with a long carbon footprint to match.
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| Overwhelmed for choice. |
Every item is labeled with the country of its provenance, which is very helpful.
One thing I did get in Egypt and for which I am very grateful, were two bottles of wonderful honey, which were a gift from the Orthodox priests we visited on a charity trip. I haven’t found anything to match it here yet. It’s lovely runny stuff, produced by religious bees. (Just kidding.) But it does make delicious muffins. I reminisce with gratitude every time I use it.Ingredients
Muffins:
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup or 115g sugar
2 large bananas (ripe)
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
Topping:
2 tablespoons or 30g butter (softened)
1/4 cup or 25g oats
1 pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons honey
Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin tin by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.
Combine your flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
In another small bowl, mashed your ripe bananas with a fork.
Then whisk together your bananas, eggs, canola oil, honey and milk.
In a separate small bowl, mix together your first four topping ingredients until smooth. Add in the honey and stir well.
Pour your egg/milk mixture into your dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.
Divide the muffin batter between the muffin cups.
Top each cup of batter with a scoop of the topping and spread it out just a little with your spoon.
Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The topping will form a natural slightly crunchy glaze on each muffin.
Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Enjoy!
