Coffee and Banana Muffins with Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting

I discovered some time ago that coffee and banana is a great flavor combo, so I've been anxious to try this recipe for some time.  I finally got that chance when my mom had 3 overripe bananas sitting around while I was visiting.  I don't know why the recipe is so large---I cut it in half and it still would have made at least 12 (if not 18) regular-sized muffins.  I used a pan with 8 rectangular cups, which I think are bigger than regular muffin cups, and filled them nearly to the top.

I prefer ginger over cinnamon in banana bread, but used the cinnamon anyway because I wasn't sure how ginger would go with coffee.  (Probably fine, as I've been drinking gingerbread-spiced coffee all winter.)  Anyway, I don't think I could detect it (but maybe because it was old.)  I reduced the sugar from the original, but otherwise pretty much followed the halved recipe. 

Here's what I used:

1¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

5/8 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3/8 cup vegetable oil

1½ cup mashed banana (3 bananas)

1/4 cup sour cream plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 heaping tablespoon instant coffee espresso, dissolved in 1 tablespoon of extremely hot water

scant cup walnuts, toasted and chopped, if desired

Coffee frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, very soft

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 heaping tablespoon instant coffee espresso, dissolved in 1 tablespoon of extremely hot water

1½ 1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350; grease cupcake pans.  Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon and salt and set aside. Beat together eggs and sugars on high speed for 3 minutes. Reduce speed and beat in oil, then bananas, yogurt, vanilla, and coffee, mixing well. Gently mix in dry ingredients until just mixed (then stir in nuts.)  Fill cups to 3/4 full and bake 17-19 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on cooling racks. 

Mix together frosting ingredients until smooth and creamy, 2 minutes. Frost cooled muffins or fill them with the cream cheese mixture.

I'm pretty sure I baked these longer than the recipe states, which would make sense since they were larger, but I can't remember the time.  I'm thinking 20-25 minutes.  I checked them with a cake tester.  My cream cheese wasn't quite warm enough and left little bits that I didn't get completely mixed in, but it wasn't noticeable while I was eating them.  Apparently "room temperature" isn't necessarily warm enough.  Curiously, I noticed the original recipe now calls for the reduced quantity of sugar in the frosting, same as I used.  Must have been a typo that I copied long ago into my recipe file.  (Note to self:  these might look nice with fork marks longitudinally down the frosting.)

Conclusion:  These were really good, moist and not overly sweet. In fact, if I made them without the frosting, I'd want the additional sugar that I left out of the batter.  The frosting was pretty strongly coffee flavored, and 3 bananas is a lot (although it might equal out to only 2 if the recipe were scaled to only 12 muffins, which is a normal quantity).  Yet when pressed, one taster didn't taste the coffee at all, and another thought they were pumpkin muffins with a maple frosting.  I have to admit, I could see it.  Part of that might have been because they had the texture of pumpkin muffins, moist and dense.  But even so, pumpkin and maple isn't bad at all.  I enjoyed these and would make them again.

Recipe:  Coffee-infused Banana Muffins via Just a Pinch.

January ABC challenge: crustless spinach quiche I

It's a new year, and a new source for the Avid Baker's Challenge recipes.  This year we've chosen The Smitten Kitchen.

This first challenge was easy, but really nice for a cold winter morning.  I find traditional quiche too rich with all the pie crust and eggs and cheese and fatty meats, so I usually make this one using tofu and vegetables.  I knew I'd need to modify this recipe to my tastes.  The first thing was to oust the crust, and then substitute milk for the half-and-half.  (I used whole milk, but I suspect I could have gotten away with 2%.)  I'm not a fan of cheesy food, so although I didn't specifically reduce the amount of cheese, I measured the cheddar very lightly in the cup and didn't weigh it, so it was probably less than the recipe intended.  I substituted out some of the black pepper for white, and though I didn't think to add the red pepper, with my first bite I immediately wished I had, so I've listed it in the recipe.  (As an alternative to the heat, I think some herbs would be a nice addition, so I've listed that as well.  It all depends on whether you want a robust flavor or a delicate one.)  The switch to pecorino Romano was simply because I prefer the taste over Parmesan and always have it on hand.

I cut the recipe in half, which fit nicely in 3, 4.5-inch ceramic tart pans.  (I used a large, 1/2-cup spoon to ladle the filling in.  Each tart took one healthy spoonful.)  I also changed up the directions slightly; it seems like it would be easier to emulsify the eggs into the cream cheese before adding the milk.  I added the salt and spices earlier to give the salt a chance to dissolve and fully incorporate (so one didn't get bursts of salt grains) and for the spices to give up their essence.  Although it's probably not necessary to use a bain-marie, since I wasn't using a crust and it happened to be a convenient thing to do at the moment, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have the quiches protected by a water bath.

Here's what I used:

3 ounces (3/8 cup) cream cheese, very soft
3 large eggs
1/3 cup half-and-half whole milk
1/2 1/4 teaspoon kosher sea salt
1/2 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper or chipotle pepper OR 1/4 teaspoon herbes de Provence (optional)
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (see note)
1/2 cup grated medium cheddar
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan pecorino Romano
3-5 green onions (according to taste), thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 425F.  Whisk cream cheese in a medium-sized bowl until smooth and fluffy.  Whisk in the eggs, one by one, blending well between each, then add the salt and peppers/herbe.  Continue whisking while adding the milk.  Fold in the remaining ingredients until they are evenly distributed.  Pour into greased tart pans and place them in a small, shallow baking pan.  Add boiling water to the pan to about half way up the sides.  Bake about 20 minutes, checking after 15.  The quiche should look firm but still moist.  Serve warm.

Note:  to fully dry out thawed spinach, I squeeze out as much as I can with my hands, then put it in a cotton kitchen towel and wring out the remaining water.

I had green onions that had been around a while and consequently I'd removed quite a lot of the outer sheaths.  They'd been thin ones to start with, so I relied on weight to get the right quantity.  I really like the freshness green onions bring, so I was going for 1.5 ounces---half the larger quantity in the original recipe.  But getting to that weight took a lot more than 4.  I used all but two of the fresh bunch I'd just bought, plus all the remnants from the old bunch, and still wasn't quite at 1.5 ounces.  As it turned out, I thought the quiche was too oniony; it even left an onion taste in my mouth for a long while.  I recommend being your own judge on the quantity for that.

I tested some nutmeg in one of the quiches (because I think nutmeg belongs in custards), but couldn't really detect what I'd added.  Just as well, as I don't think it would have mixed well with the cheddar.  I normally buy mild cheddar in 2-pound blocks, but last time I accidentally bought medium cheddar.  I found the cheddar flavor a little strong, but by no means excessive.  I think the strong cheese flavor is what demanded some chile heat, but if using mild cheddar either the red pepper or the herbes would be fine.  When I saw the recipe called for kosher salt, I wondered if it were measured for large-grain salt.  (Kosher comes small grain as well.)  Since I wanted the salt fully incorporated, I used small-grained sea salt, but worried the measurement might be off.  It was---the quiche was a little too salty. I've adjusted the recipe above to reduce the salt content.  Lastly, I messed up on the timing and overcooked the quiche slightly.  I initially set the timer for 13 minutes.  They weren't nearly done, so I set it again for 10 minutes... or so I thought.  When it didn't go off after what seemed like 10 minutes, I got up to check and the timer read 9:49.  <insert confused emoticon here>  I guess I accidentally set it for 10 hours.  Oops.  So in total it seems the quiche baked for 24 minutes.  They could have been moister, but otherwise were fine.  I've adjusted the timing in the recipe to what I think would be acceptable.  (See also Crustless Spinach Quiche II.)

Conclusion:  Very good.  Very safe.  Nothing that's going to jar you out of your chair.  I just find quiche a little too fussy for what amounts to scrambled eggs with veggies and cheese, and since you can eat only a small amount, you have to find something else to round out the breakfast anyway.  It's nice to have to gussy up special occasions, though.

Recipe:  Spinach sheet-pan quiche via Smitten Kitchen