Ever since I first flipped through my latest read,  Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking, these banana muffins caught my eye. They're actually a variation on the Espresso Banana Muffins featured in the book, since I'm cutting out most caffeine and didn't want to include the espresso (though I might take up her suggestion of stirring some chocolate chunks into the next batch). Anyway, this makes a good baker's dozen, so I had enough to share with friends, too! 

These muffins were also a golden opportunity to take my new stainless steel KitchenAid Artisan 5qt Stand Mixer for a whirl...talk about a new favorite kitchen gadget - I can't keep my hands off it!  One caveat though. If you're used to light, cake-y sugary muffins, these are not for you. These are all about the banana and they're lighter on the sugar and denser than their store-bought or package-mix counterparts (which means they're actually filling, too - perfect for a working girl's breakfast on the go).

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 tsps baking powder (Swanson recommends aluminium-free)
• 1/2 tsp fine-grain sea salt
• 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts (this is where I depart from Swanson's recipe)
• 6 tbsps unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup Florida Crystals (natural cane sugar) 
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain yogurt (I actually used Stonyfield Farms Organic Vanilla yogurt)
• 1 1/2 cups mashed over-ripe bananas (since the only bananas available in Greenlife Grocery were small little organic ones, I used six small-medium sized bananas)
• unbleached paper baking cups
• muffin tray (12-cup)

Got an hour? It's not too late to make these sweet Easter Buns - and to enjoy them today, tomorrow and for the rest of the week...if you can resist gobbling them up all at once!

Even if you don't consider yourself a bread baker, these buns are a cinch - and if you're a little uptight about (dare I mention it) going back to work tomorrow, the kneading part is a great stress reliever! Best of all, the end result is a light, fragrant spiced bun "decorated" for Easter with sweet raisins and a little bit of simple icing. You won't be able to resist a bite straight out of the oven...

Here's what you need:

List A

• 2 packets of instant yeast
• 1/4 pint warm (NOT BOILING) tap water minus 2 tablespoons (don't ask why, just do it)
• 1/4 pint warm (NOT BOILING) milk
  
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 oz white bread flour

List B

• 8 oz white bread flour
  
• 2 oz granulated sugar
  
• 1 tbsp Ground Nutmeg (more if you like it!)
• 1 tbsp Ground All Spice or mixed spice*
• 2-3 good handfuls of raisins and/or currants

*It's hard to get Mixed Spice in the US, so if you don't have any on hand, All Spice makes a fine substitute!

Note: Friends and family will agree that I'm the last person to make a case for having paid attention in math class. But as it turns out, ratios do matter -at least when you're baking. That's why it's a great idea to get a food scale if you don't already have one. You don't need anything fancy - just something that will help you weigh out your flour, sugar etc. 

Now, here's what you do:

1. Put the yeast in a medium-size mixing bowl or measuring jug, then add the warm water, warm milk and sugar from List A, then stir until the mixture begins to froth.
2. Add the beaten egg next, then stir in the 4 oz of flour until the mixture froths again (you'll see some air bubbles breaking on the surface). (FYI: In bread-making terms, the mixture you've just made is called a poolish and it's basically a wet bread starter that can be used for making all different types of bread.)
3. Set the poolish aside and let the yeast really come to life - the combination of warm milk and water, and the "food" provided by the egg and sugar will get the mixture going and start the rising process. This is also a good moment to make sure your home is pretty warm - trust me, your buns won't rise if your house is cold, and this may be the one time in life where you want your buns to be as large as possible!
4. Okay, while the poolish is doing it's thing, get out a large mixing bowl and combine the flour, sugar, Ground All Spice, Ground Nutmeg and raisins from List B. 
5. Now, here's the fun part. First of all, make a small well in the center of the flour and pour in a small amount of the poolish.
   
6. Using a couple of fingers or - if you're not really the get-messy type, a fork - start to stir the poolish in small circles so that it begins to pull in the surrounding flour. As it begins to form a very small ball of dough, pour in more poolish and continue stirring.
   
7. Continue adding poolish and working the dough in circles until all of the poolish has been combined with all of the flour mixture. It will start to get a little stiffer and will eventually form one large ball of dough.
   
8. As soon as the ball is formed, turn it out onto a floured countertop surface and knead it for about 10 minutes. This is where the dough will go from sticky and slightly amorphous to firmer, rounder and more elastic. (TIP: If the dough is sticking to your fingers, instead of throwing flour all over your counter, simply coat your hands with flour instead. The dough won't stick to the counter or your hands and you'll end up with far less to clean up!)
9. Once the dough has taken on a very nice, uniform consistency - it should feel soft enough to press into but firm enough that it has some "spring" and will "bounce back" when you push on it - roll it into a long sausage (about 2-3 inches in diameter).
   
10. Take a very sharp knife and slice the dough into 12 or 13 equal sections.
    
11. Pat each section into a round ball and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet or better yet a baking stone. (If you want to make Hot Cross Buns, this is where you use the knife to score a cross across the top of each bun.)
12. Take a lightweight cotton dish towel like these beautifully colored Floursack Tea Towels (no terry cloth here, people), saturate it with warm-to-hot tap water, wring it out completely so that it's barely damp and drape it over the top of the buns.
    
13. Place the tray of buns in a warm area to rise. This could be your bathroom, your living room or your kitchen counter depending on conditions in your house. Just remember, a lightly humid, warm environment is best for getting the buns to rise. (TIP: One trick that seems to work very well for me is to pre-heat my oven to 200F right when I'm starting to assemble the ingredients. Once the pre-heat is finished, I turn the oven OFF. When I'm ready to let the buns rise, I put the dish towel-covered tray into the oven. The warmth combined with the dampness of the dish towel helps the rising process).
    
14. Let the buns rise until they're twice their original size - this could take 20-30 minutes or it could take an hour. There is some trial and error involved here but once they look like they've doubled in size, you're good to go. If you're not using your oven to let the buns rise, pre-heat it to 400F. If you ARE using it, you'll need to take the buns out once they've risen and pre-heat to 400 before putting them back in.
15. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the tops of the buns are a lovely golden brown. If you're using a metal baking sheet, watch carefully as it's easy to burn the bottoms. (Another reason a baking stone is so great for buns, bread etc.).
    
16. Let the buns cool, at least until they are "touchable", then mix up 3 parts confectioner's sugar to 1 part water until you have a thick white "glaze" for the buns. This is where you have some choices. You can ice the tops of the buns completely (as shown), ice a "cross" on top for Easter, or create a runnier consistency for a lighter all-over glaze. Or, you can leave this part out completely and just enjoy them as is.

How to enjoy? Eat them, of course! And anything goes...you can slice them in half cross-wise, toast each half lightly and enjoy with a little spread of butter. You can enjoy them whole and straight out of the oven. Cold, hot, toasted, buttered, plain...the sky's the limit. Try one with your coffee for a quick, delicious breakfast...or with a hot cup of tea for an afternoon treat.

And if you want to make them last a little longer, toss a couple in the freezer (put them in ziplock bags) then thaw naturally (it doesn't take too long) when ever you want a snack.

Happy Easter... and Happy Spring!