Kate's Cure for the Common Cuisine: Banana Spice Muffins

We've talked about this before - when I say we've "talked", I mean that I have posted and you have read it, ergo, we've had a conversation - I am not a breakfast person. When I was little, my mom had to trick me the best she could eventually winning me over with Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes as I ran out the door to school. It could either be my inability to wake up more than 45 minutes before having to be somewhere, or the fact that I just do not have one iota of hunger in me until about 10 am at the earliest. This is something that I've been trying to change.

To assist in that effort, I've been looking for breakfast recipes to try out on weekends when there is ample time in the morning to make something, consume and go about my day, then save the oatmeal and cereal for breakfast when I get into the office.

I came across this muffin recipe in Cuisine Lite Fresh, Flavorful and Healthy magazine. We made them one Saturday morning for a fantastic result! They made 15 total allowing for left overs. Each muffin contains 206 calories, 7g fat, 46mg chol, 32g carb, 5g protein and 54mg calcium.

Grocery List:
For streusel topping

1/4 cup chopped walnuts (I simply threw walnuts into my mini-food processor)
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

For muffin mix

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. gound cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup mashed banana
2 egg yolks (reserve whites)
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2 egg whites

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners and coat with non-stick spray. We are going to start by making the streusel topping combining the walnuts, 2 tbsp. flour, the brown sugar, 1 tbsp. melted butter and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Stir together well and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, nutmeg and salt.

You will need both egg whites and egg yolks for this recipe, both at different times of the process. The way we separate eggs around here is literally, hands-on. Here's Max Man using his fingers to drain the egg whites while catching the yolk. Gently run the egg contents back and forth between fingers/hands to get the egg white out and end up with just the yolk.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the yogurt, smashed banana, egg yolks and 3 tbsp. melted butter. Stir this into the dry ingredients.

Finally, in another separate bowl, whip together the egg whites until they "peak". One thing I've learned is that you want your egg whites at room temperature for the best result. So for this recipe (and any other time you use egg whites), set your eggs out a little before you begin your process so they are closer to room-temp, rather than just out of the fridge. I'm pretty sure we still didn't get this part 100% correct, but we whipped as we could until they looked like foam - the best way to do this is with electric beaters. You will want to gently fold the egg whites into the batter. And I apologize, we did not capture this by accident - probably the most helpful picture for you.....but here is the outcome of the muffin mix.

When your egg whites are well combined, your muffin mix is ready to dole out into the muffin cups, filling about 2/3 of the cup with batter. Gently add a dollop of streusel to the top of the muffin - I used my fingers and fork to gently spread across the top of each muffin. You don't need too much, the spreading goes a long way.