Banana Graham Muffins by Maya Corrigan #Recipe #Thanksgiving

Mr. Turkey watching over Thanksgiving breakfast

Yesterday a large overripe banana presented me with a challenge. I usually make banana bread with mushy bananas, but my favorite recipe for it requires 2-3 mashed bananas. I was lucky to find a recipe for banana muffins on the graham cracker box in my pantry. The recipe would work with one banana, as long as I adjusted the ingredients to bake eight muffins instead of twelve. 

If your Thanksgiving guests stay over, these muffins make a (relatively) healthy breakfast or tea time treat. Graham flour gained a reputation as a health food in the early 19th century. The coarsely ground whole wheat flour was for named for Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer. He promoted temperance and vegetarianism, and believed whole grains were a remedy for poor health. His followers, known as Grahamites, developed and marketed graham flour, bread, and crackers.

The ingredients below make 12 muffins. I used approximately 2/3 of each ingredient to match the amount of mashed banana I had. I also substituted 1% milk for the fat-free version, and I left out the nuts.  

Ingredients

16 Nabisco graham crackers, finely crushed (approximately 2-2/3 cups)

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup fat-free milk

2 Tablespoons honey

2 fully ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup walnuts, used a topping for each muffin

Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Break up the graham crackers into smaller pieces and put them into a resealable freezer bag. Flatten the bag to remove excess air and seal the bag. Use a rolling pin to crush the crackers into crumbs. Instead, you can use a food processor to turn the crackers into crumbs.

Crackers in pieces appear at the bottom.
Crushed crackers are shown at the top.

Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and baking powder. 

Combine the egg, milk, honey, and mashed banana in a large mixing bowl. Add the crumb mixture and stir until the batter is moistened. Spoon it into paper-lined or buttered muffin cups. Top each muffin with nut pieces if you're using them. 

The photo might not make it obvious that I filled the unused cups with a little water. I learned years ago to fill any empty cups. The purpose might be to add moisture to the baking environment and/or to keep the empty cups from getting too hot and burning. 

Bake the muffins for 15 to 18 minutes. To test they're done, insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin. It should come out clean when the muffin is sufficiently baked.   

Cool the muffins for 5 minutes. Then remove them and put them on a wire rack to continued cooling. 

READERS: Do you have a favorite breakfast dish for Thanksgiving Day or the day after?

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

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The gift-giving season is coming up fast. If you have a friend who'd enjoy a holiday mystery, Gingerdead Man would make a great gift. 

"A wonderfully seasonal cozy mystery"

--Criminal Element

Gingerdead Man: Five-Ingredient Mystery #7 features cafe manager Val and her energetic grandfather solving murders in their Chesapeake Bay town.

During Bayport's Dickens of a Holiday festival, Val is hosting a private tea party for the volunteers dressed as Dickens characters including Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past. A Santa who's more naughty than nice also comes to tea. An unexpected guest arrives, "shrouded in a deep black garment" like the eeriest Dickens ghost, and hands out gingerbread men with white icing skeleton bones. Though the creepy treat called a gingerdead man looks like a Halloween leftover, cookie addict Santa can't resist it. When the man in red turns blue, Val and Granddad have a cookie-cutter killer to catch.

"If you are looking to settle in with a well plotted cozy this Christmas, Gingerdead Man is for you. Grab a gingerbread man and some hot chocolate and enjoy." -- Mark Baker, Carstairs Considers

"Plenty of red herrings, mixed motives, and recipes for foodies make for a spirited holiday cozy." -- Kirkus Review of Gingerdead Man

"Maya Corrigan is skillfully able to take elements from several of my favorite Golden Age mysteries and weave them together....Gingerdead Man is a superb mix of cozy Christmas mystery shenanigans and hair-raising thrills." -- Miranda Owen, Fresh Fiction

 Purchase Links and Sample Chapter

Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manger Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Maya lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Before writing crime fiction, she taught American literature, writing, and detective fiction at Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords. Visit her website for book news, easy recipes, and mystery trivia.

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