Rena's Lemon Maple banana Muffins

This is copied and pasted from an email from Rena.  I made these for the tea shop today (30 September, 2012) and we received favorable comments.  I had sourcream/butter/lemon oil frosting from an applesauce cake that I made and this went well with the muffins.  

From Rena (except my comment about the flour)

"(Developed with love for Sente Dojo)
------------------------------Makes 12 regular or 24 mini muffins with overflowing tops*
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3 ripe bananas
3/4 c sugar
1/4 c maple syrup (grade B if possible!)
1 large egg
4 T (1/2 stick) butter, melted
5 drops lemon essential oil
1/4 c fresh lemon juice (~1.5 lemons)

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour (I (Karen) used 1/2 cup wholewheat flour and it came out fine)
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

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Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Liberally butter tins for 12 regular sized muffins or 24 mini ones (buttering the flat part of the tin about 1cm around the holes will make life easier in the end)
Mash the bananas with a fork in a large bowlMix in the sugar, maple syrup, egg, lemon juice, and essential oil using a handheld electric mixer on the lowest speed**Pour in the melted butter and mix until blended 
In a smaller bowl, whisk or sift together the remaining dry ingredientsAdd dry ingredients to wet, mixing on the lowest speed, until combined Immediately fill the muffin tins and put them in the oven! 

I use an ice cream style cookie scoop to work quickly and get uniform sizeBake for 35-40 minutes (20ish for minis), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out damn near clean (tops should be golden and caramelized, with browning around the edges)

 Devour!

I find that the regular sized muffins are better after they cool completely, and the minis are good with minimal cooling. I think this is because of the surface-to-insides ratio, the little ones don't need as long to set. The same ratio means that the little ones don't stay good as long, since they'll dry out faster. Generally keeping these around is not a problem you'll have though.


* I think the batter is really enough for 14 or 15 regular sized muffins that don't overflow so much (and that are therefore much easier to get out of the pan), but that only makes sense if you have another tin to expand into. I have 2 tins, one regular and one mini, so I often will make a dozen in the regular tin and overflow the remaining batter into the smaller tin. I guess I should get more scientific with this.

** I've tried mixing these by hand and they end up fluffy like a normal muffin, not flat-topped as when I usually make them. It might be worth experimenting because that was the batch made with xylitol which didn't caramelize, so it was all wrong. It's possible that mixing by hand with real sugar will result in domed, caramelized muffins, but to be sure of the outcome use an electric mixer. : )"