Chai Banana Muffins
The whispers of Chai Banana muffins began circulating our production floor quickly when Jeff mentioned that he would be making them. Everyone was excited for them, but every day it seemed like they would never get made. Jeff would talk about them in the mornings, but they would never materialize. Finally, after a few days of anticipation, the glorious words rang out, “muffins are ready!” They were one thousand percent worth the wait. They were so good alone, but a tiny bit of butter really knocked these out into space. The sweetness of the banana was perfectly melded with the nice warmth of the chai seasoning, and the results were a muffin that can be enjoyed with a cozy, hot drink and a perfectly written novel. The dream, truly.
For this recipe we used organic coconut sugar, but any unbleached cane sugar will get the job done. The two teaspoons of chai seasoning that we added to our recipe can be cut down to just one teaspoon if you don’t want such an intense chai flavor, but then they will end up tasting more like a plain old banana muffin if you do cut the seasoning. To get the consistency of these muffins just right, leave your bananas out until they are mushy and spotted. The riper they are, the better these muffins will taste. Just don’t let the bananas get so ripe that they fall apart in your hands- that’s not a good time for anyone.
Jeff’s secret for the perfect muffin consistency, which is a muffin that is neither too airy nor too chewy, is the batter stir time. If you stir too much, your muffins will get tough. Keep things moving only until most of the chunks are gone, but don’t go overboard. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth for your batter to be ready. When the muffins are cooking, the standard toothpick test is enough to determine if they are ready to come out of the oven or not. For those who do not know, this is when you insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin and pull it out. If it comes out clean, the muffins are ready. If not, leave them in for a few more minutes.
When I got to try the muffins for myself, I was lucky enough to get a pretty huge chunk of one. Jeff had used a 12 muffin pan, but somehow only got ten muffins out of the batter. “Maybe I added too much? Oh well, I liked the size they turned out,” he added when talking about the yield results. He also added walnuts as a garnish on top just before baking, but you could add them into the batter if you wanted, or not at all. They’re optional, and the amount is determined by preference, not really by a number.
- 1/2 cup salted butter
- 1 cup Organic Coconut Sugar (or unbleached cane sugar)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp Chai Baking Spice Blend
- 3 medium bananas
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup walnuts (optional)
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Line pan with papers, or grease with oil.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- Pour the sugar into a large bowl. Pour in melted butter and combine. Add the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and chai blend and whisk to combine.
- Peel bananas and, in a small bowl, mash with a potato masher. Add to other wet ingredients and combine.
- In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not over stir as this will result in dense, chewy muffins.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin and fill each up 2/3 of the way.
- Place pan in oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Place the muffins on cooling rack for 5 minutes before serving.
