Banana Mini Muffins #MuffinMonday

Sweet fluffy bites, perfect with a glass of cold milk or a cup of hot tea, your family will eat these banana mini muffins in a flash.

I am a fan of baking mini muffins because they tend disappear more quickly than the full-size ones. I put these on the table after dinner last night and even though everyone had eaten well, they each took a mini muffin for dessert. Yay! I tell you, that would never have happened with normal muffins.

Banana Mini Muffins

These little guys are a great recipe for using up that last banana that always languishes at the end of a bunch, brown and speckled but oh so sweet. 

Ingredients 

1 cup or 125g all-purpose flour

1/4 cup, firmly packed, or 50g light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 ripe banana (about 1/2 cup or 125g)

1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil

2 tablespoons Greek yogurt

1 egg

Method

Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C. Prepare your 12-cup mini muffin pan by greasing it or line it with paper liners. 

Mash your banana with a fork in a mixing bowl.

Add in the oil, yogurt and egg and whisk them together with the banana.

Lightly whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in another mixing bowl to combine.

Fold the wet ingredients into flour mixture until just moistened.

Divide batter among the muffin cups. I love my little scoop for this job but if you don’t have one, a spoon will do.

Bake the muffins in your preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 12-15 minutes. Cool in the pan for a few minutes then remove the muffins from the pan and continue to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

It's the last Monday of the month so that means it's Muffin Monday! Check out all of the great muffins my Muffin Monday friends are sharing today!

• Banana Mini Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Avocado Walnut Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Cinnamon Applesauce & Raisin Rye Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Easy Snickerdoodle Muffins from Making Miracles
• Eggnog Muffin Tops from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Pearl Millet Banana Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• Sourdough Apple Oatmeal Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen

 

 #MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Lemon Poached Chicken and Leeks

Lemon poached chicken and leeks is a light and flavorful dish made with chicken broth, white wine and garlic. It's so easy too, in a slow cooker. Even boneless, skinless chicken breasts turn out tender and tasty.

We’ve been eating a lot more boneless, skinless chicken breast these days for various reasons, not the least of which was my primary care physician expressing concern about my high cholesterol. So I’m always on the lookout for ways to add flavor to what is often a fairly bland part of the bird.

Poaching, that is gently cooking it in liquid at a low temperature, is ideal for adding extra tastiness and simultaneously making sure that the chicken doesn’t dry out. The best kitchen tool for poaching, in my opinion, is your slow cooker. 

In a normal pot, you have to constantly monitor the temperature to make sure the broth (or whatever your poaching liquid of choice) is only simmering and equally importantly, is still covering the chicken. 

In a slow cooker, the machine does all that for you. 

Lemon Poached Chicken and Leeks

If you’d like to skip using wine, I suggest replacing it with more chicken broth measured with perhaps a tablespoon or two of white balsamic vinegar. Can’t find leeks? They can be replaced by your favorite vegetable from the allium family like onions, scallions, shallots or chives. This recipe was inspired by a slow cooker spinach and artichoke chicken one on TheKitchn.

Ingredients

2 3/4 lbs or 1240g boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Few generous grinds black pepper (I use a peppercorn mix.)

1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne

2 large leeks

2 cloves garlic

1 medium lemon

1 1/2 cup or 560ml chicken broth

1/2 cup or 120ml dry white wine

For serving:

chopped fresh parsley leaves

Method

Season the chicken breasts all over with the salt and two peppers. We like things on the spicy side so I definitely use more cayenne. 

Trim the leeks of their root ends and hard green bits and discard. Rinse them well under running water, then slice the tender green and white parts of the leeks into rounds about 1/4 in or 6mm wide. 

Smash then mince the garlic and cut the lemon into eight wedges, removing any seeds as you do. 

Place the chicken breasts in a single layer in a 6-quart or larger slow cooker. Top them with the garlic. 

Add in the leeks then pour in the chicken stock and white wine. 

Tuck the lemon wedges all around the chicken. 

Cover and cook on the LOW setting until the chicken is cooked through and registers 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours.

Transfer the chicken breasts to a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut the chicken into 1/2 inch or 1cm slices.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the leeks to a lipped serving dish, then arrange the chicken slices on top of the leeks. Tuck the lemon wedges around the chicken for color. 

Top with some of the cooking liquid and a few generous grinds of black pepper. 

Sprinkle on some chopped parsley for garnish. 

Enjoy warm, at room temperature or even cold!

It's Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing special recipes to ring in the New Year! Check them all out below. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe!

• Cheaters Collards and Ham from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Ham and Black-Eyed Pea Soup from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Lemon Poached Chicken and Leeks from Food Lust People Love
• Malbari Style Beef Biryani With Cucumber Boondi Raita from Sneha's Recipe
• Shrimp Chip Dip from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy Black-Eyed Pea Soup (Instant Pot) from Palatable Pastime

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Sous Vide Creme Brulee

This sous vide crème brûlée is creamy and rich, just as crème brûlée should be, with a crispy golden sugar topping. If you have a sous vide machine, it’s so much easier than baking in a water bath in the oven. 

We discovered crème brûlée, as many people do, in the restaurants of Paris. It became a favorite, the dessert my husband always ordered, if it was on the menu. When we moved on from La Belle France, I had to learn to make it myself. Weren’t nobody serving it in the beautiful backwater that was the little oilfield town of Macaé, Brazil! 

The first time I posted a crème brûlée recipe on my blog, in fact, was for my mother’s birthday back in 2011, the first month of food blogging. My most recent crème brûlée recipe was made with persimmons but you could use your favorite fruit. 

In a word, we LOVE crème brûlée!

Back in the day, I used the broil setting in the oven to caramelize the sugar topping or a spoon heated to scorching over the gas burner but I’ve had a kitchen torch for years and years, just to make this favorite family dessert. My only objection to making creme brûlée is the struggle when I try to remove the baking pan from the oven half filled with water. I tend to slosh. 

Using the sous vide machine and canning jars solves that problem. Unfortunately, it creates another one. Keeping the jars under water. Still, with a couple of weights, sous vide is much easier! I hope you’ll give it a try. 

Sous Vide Creme Brûlée

If you don’t have a vanilla bean, you can substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. In the case of the latter two, skip the simmering, cooling milk step and just add them to the cold milk. This recipe is adapted from one on The Seaside Baker.

Ingredients

For the custard:

2 1/2 cups or 592g heavy whipping cream

1 vanilla bean pod, split and scraped

6 large egg yolks (98g)

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

tiny pinch salt

To serve:

8 teaspoons sugar

Kitchen torch

Method

Set your sous vide precision cooker to heat the water to 176°F or 80°C.

Wash and dry six 4 oz canning jars with lids. Any shape will do for the custard, but I like using the short, squat ones to give more surface area to caramelize sugar on when the custard has set. 

On medium heat, warm cream, vanilla pod and seeds and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar and pinch of salt together until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture no longer feels gritty between your fingertips. It will thicken a little, which is good. 

Remove the vanilla bean pod from the cooled cream.

Add the cream a little at a time to the egg yolk mixture, whisking continually. 

Divide the custard between the six clean jars.

Tighten the lids until they are just closed in order to allow the jars to release air bubbles while cooking. This is called "fingertip tightness," the variable of "closed-ness" achieved by using only your fingertips to screw on the lids. If they start emitting bubbles right when you put them underwater, tighten just a little bit more. 

Carefully place jars in the preheated sous vide container. Since they have air in the headroom of the jar, they’ll want to tip and float. Place weights on top to keep them submerged and straight. I used bricks. 

Cook for 1 hour. My apologies for no photos of this part. Jars in a plastic container, underwater with bricks on top do not photograph well. 

Once done, remove the canning jars from the water and leave to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Don’t tip the water on top off as this helps keep the seal. 

After cooling, place the jars in a refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

About 30 minutes before serving, remove them from your refrigerator so they can warm up a bit. 

Just before serving remove the lids and sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar onto the custard.

Torch the sugar until it has caramelized and serve immediately. 

Enjoy!

It's Multicooker Monday so that means my blogger friends are sharing recipes using their various small cooking devices. Many thanks to our leader Sue of Palatable Pastime and this week's behind the scenes worker bee, Wendy of  Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the other recipe links below. 

• 15 Bean Soup (Instant Pot) by Palatable Pastime
• Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets with Two Dipping Sauces by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Air Fryer Sweet Potato Chips by Sneha's Recipe
• Crockpot Dressing by Veggies First Then Dessert
• Instant Pot Bolognese from Making Miracles
• Instant Pot Navy Bean and Smoked Turkey Soup by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sous Vide Crème Brûlée from Food Lust People Love

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group. 

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