Starting in the Basement

Do you have some old bananas waiting to be used?  Well, I have two ideas for you.  One, is a recipe for delicious muffins (with frosting, because who doesn’t love frosting?) and the other is for banana soft serve.  It turns out if you freeze a banana and then blend it with a little milk you get a texture resembling soft serve ice cream.  I was skeptical at first but I blended the frozen banana with a scoop of Nutella and a splash of milk and voila, ice cream!  It was delicious.  Next time I am going to try a scoop of peanut butter.  Or maybe a scoop of both…

Okay, now for the more complex recipe.  I have had a can of dulce de leche sauce in my pantry for a long time now and I kept waiting for inspiration.  I finally found it when I imagined my brown bananas with caramel sauce.

I wanted to make something for Frenchie’s sister’s visit so I thought these would be great because muffins are not a common French food.  She one-upped me by bringing these.

Well I can’t compete with that!  We had a great visit and I think Camille officially loves her French aunt.

Luckily she still politely ate my muffins while I drooled over the macarons.   Here they are.

Banana – Walnut Muffins

adapted slightly from Simply Recipes

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (toasted or raw

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 F.  Mix bananas and sugar in a large mixing bowl or mixer bowl.
• Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla
• Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture
• Add the flour, mix until it is just incorporated.  Mix in the walnuts
• Pour mixture into a prepared muffin tin.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin.  It if comes out clean, they are done.  Cool completely before frosting.

Dulce de leche Frosting

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup dulce de leche sauce*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (or to taste)
• pinch of salt

Using a mixer combine all ingredients until smooth.  Adjust vanilla and salt as desired.  The frosting is not overly sweet which I think works well with muffins.  If I was making a frosting for a cupcake I would add some powdered sugar.

*You can find dulce de leche sauce in the mexican food section of your grocery store.  You can also make it yourself with many recipes found on the internet.