Mini Banana-Maple Pancake Muffins

I know I already posted a blog post tonight, but I am attempting to be a true food blogger, only writing about one dish at a time, but I am starting to get backed up, and today is a Sunday before a very busy week, so I knew I had to get things accomplished! 

Last night was a wild and crazy Saturday.  It was the day after my birthday, so probably most new 28-year-oldswould be out partying or something, but I was having a wonderful evening home with just my mom.  We had big plans to watch Big Miracle on HBO, which we suddenly and mysteriously get now (shhhhh don't tell Direct TV!).  Right before we started it, we were saying that it would be nice to have something to snack on, and I grabbed the cookbook that Sammy got me for my birthday.  Last week I made beer rolls from the cookbook and they weren't great (I deem them not-blog-worthy), but then again I hate beer and the taste of it, so it wasn't too surprising that I wasn't a fan!  The recipe I flipped to was mini banana-maple pancake muffins.  I love banana, and I love maple, and also muffins.  Plus the recipe was quick and we happened to have some bananas - not overly ripe, but they would do.  I whipped these up really quickly; they were fast and easy and I had all the ingredients I needed - even buttermilk and real maple syrup.  I got to use my precious little silicone mini muffin pan, and then in about 30 minutes time total, I was turning out hot little banana-maple muffins!  I think they are called "pancake muffins" because the batter is similar to pancake batter, and you serve them with more maple syrup for dipping.

Mom and I were big fans of these little guys.  Not too sweet (only 2 tablespoons of sugar!) and lots of banana flavor, they were moist and hot and delicious.  We found that they were excellent dipped in syrup, but really didn't even need to be dunked.  We each ate 4, and Ross came over and ate 2.  The numbers are important, because when Ross came over to sell us squares for a football pool, we left the room... and the muffins.  And when we came back.... well, just see if you can infer what happened from the pictures.

"Oh, that looks good..."

"Hmmm...."

"I reeaaaaally want one of those..."

So, there were no leftovers, and we are all pretty sad about that.  Today I bought more bananas and plan on letting them get over-ripe so that I can make more mini muffins, and this time, I will only keep them on very high, dog-proof surfaces :(  Mom said they were "out of this world good."  RIP mini muffins.

Recipe:

mini banana-maple pancake muffins

from Home Baked Comfort by Kim Laidlaw (thank you Sammy!)
makes 2 dozen mini muffins (half of which will be eaten by Delilah)

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup, plus more for dipping
2 tablespoons unsalted melted butter (cooled, or you will cook the egg!)
1 very ripe, large banana, mashed

Instructions:

1) Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350  degrees.  Generously grease 24 mini muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray or butter,

2) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another bowl, stir together buttermilk, egg, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, and the butter until just combined.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Stir in the mashed banana.

3) Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups.  Bake until the muffins are puffed and golden, 10-12 minutes.  Let the muffins cool slightly in the pan on a wire rack, then unmold onto the rack.  Serve right away with maple syrup for dipping and do not let any basset hounds near them!!!!

It's just hard to stay mad at someone so cute...