recipe | banana walnut pomegranate tea infused muffins

Whoa.  I know that title is very intimidating…and you should be.  These muffins are…amazing.  A few weeks ago I made a decadent batch of chocolate muffins, but THESE muffins are flavorful in a whole different (and divine) way.

I had been thinking about baking some kind of muffins with tea in them, but couldn’t think of anything at first.  I love any baked goods with banana, so I figured something with bananas & walnuts.  Then I dug around my giant jar of tea…it’s been sitting around untouched for quite a while.  I love tea, but I only really drink it in the winter.

I finally found something that I thought would be both interesting and also go well with bananas–pomegranate tea!  I mixed two different kids–Bigelow Tea’s Pomegranate Pizzazz Tea, and Trader Joe’s Pomegranate White Tea.

I wasn’t quite sure how to incorporate the tea at first–there isn’t any real liquid used in a banana muffin recipe, so I couldn’t just brew some & replace a liquid with tea.  Luckily, I found this great blog post about how to bake with tea!  It was so informative.  She recommends incorporating the tea into your butter.  Genius!  I have made herb butter, sriracha butter…but it never dawned on me to infuse butter with tea!

Of course…before I could do any of that, I had to get the tea out of the sachets.  Oy.  The post about infusing butter with tea recommended using 1 + 1/2 teaspoons of tea for each tablespoon of butter you are melting.  I just got as close as I could, and it worked just fine.  I used 8 tablespoons (one whole stick of unsalted butter).  Once you finish the butter infusion process, you are going to lose some of the butter, so use more than the recipe calls for.

I just had to take a picture of the pile of empty packages and tea sachets…outrageous!

hahaha. this still makes me laugh!

But it is so worth the final product!

Okay.  So here is the official list of things you will need!

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 to 1 + 1/2 teaspoons of loose tea per tablespoon of butter you use
• cheesecloth
• 1 + 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• chopped walnuts (optional)

To make the tea infused butter, melt the stick of butter in a saucepan on low heat.  Once the butter is all melted, add in the tea & stir it around to incorporate.

Let the butter stay on the heat for 5 minutes.  Stir occasionally.  Remove from heat & let it sit for 5 minutes.

To separate the tea & butter, pour the mixture into some cheesecloth over a bowl.  Squeeze until you get out all the butter that you can. Careful, though–it’ll be a little hot!

my cheesecloth bowl ready to go!

Get your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) mixed together in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mixed together the mashed bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and tea infused butter.

Mix the dry & wet ingredients together!  Then put a quarter cup of the batter into each muffin tin cup (this makes 12 muffins).

Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for 25-30 minutes.  I only needed 25.  Top with walnuts if you’d like!

Let them cool on a rack! :)

…and then enjoy!

Mmmmm…I couldn’t believe how well these came out!  Neither flavor is overwhelming, but together, the banana & pomegranate butter create a light yet rich flavor.  I’m kind of addicted!

If you are interested in other ways to use tea in baking, check out this great post on Cait Plus Ate about making berry tea infused scones!

recipe | double chocolate & vanilla cinnamon oatmeal “muffins”

“Living with cookies in your home is like living with a bomb under your pillow.”  Sophia Rossi once tweeted this, and I believe it is one of the most truthful things anyone has ever said.  On the internet.  In regards to cookies.

Well, folks, I’ve got a nuclear bomb under my pillow.  Except it’s not made of cookies…it’s made of muffins.  Delicious, chocolately muffins.  So delicious, that I don’t think I can even call them muffins.  They’re more like…fluffy cookies.  They certainly aren’t the prettiest looking things in the world, but my goodness are they delicious…!

not the most attractive, but oh-so-delicious

These started as an idea of modifying this recipe to make it healthier.  I managed to save some calories and add in some protein (3.4 grams per “muffin”)–they still aren’t as healthy as I wanted them to be (207 calories each & 19 g of sugar), but I think the Universe was telling me I needed to indulge by bringing this idea to my brain.  So don’t think, friends–just bake.  And eat!  If you’re really wanting to make it a little healthier, I’ll add in some possible modifications along the way.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chocolate soy protein powder (inspired by this post about the benefits of soy protein!)
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour (to make this healthier, replace this with more or all protein powder)
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (healthier version: replace this with agave nectar)
• 1 egg
• 1/8 cup apple sauce (I used cinnamon flavor, but plain is fine)
• 1/8 cup butter, softened (healthier version: replace this with more apple sauce)
• 1 + 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 cup vanilla almond milk (unsweetned)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (healthier version: use only 1/2 cup chocolate chips, or skip them entirely

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a muffin tray & spray with non-stick spray.

Put all of the oats in a bowl, and mix with 1/2 cup of the almond milk.  Let it sit while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

Whisk the brown sugar and egg together, then add in the vanilla extract, apple sauce, and softened butter.  Whisk it until it gets as smooth as it can!

Add in the soy protein, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, oats (now soaked with milk), and the last 1/2 cup of almond milk.  Mix together.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Put about 1/4 cup of the mixture into each muffin cup.

Bake for 15-18 minutes (I needed 18).  Let them cool a bit…

…and then dig in!!  With a glass of milk, of course.  You’re gonna need it.

Having never cooked with soy protein before, I wasn’t sure how it would taste.  I was so blown away by how decadent these are!!  They are so rich and chocolately, so it’s good to know that at least some of the ingredients are healthy.

Next time, I want to try the healthier modifications & see how they taste.  Something tells me it’ll be just as delicious!

If you try these, let me know how they turn out!  And if you have ever cooked with soy protein, I’d love to hear about your experiences.