first light

woke up at 8 to bake banana muffins for breakfast! yes this is another nigella recipe. she has given me enlightenment on what real muffins should be like. they should not be like those rich cakey ones you find in coffee chains - those are cakes. muffins, on the other hand, are light. i've also read elsewhere that says if it's too rich to tolerate a pat of butter, then it's not a muffin. which should be the case, because muffins are eaten with butter!
this is a quick bread that involves a little butter, vanilla, honey, flour, cinnamon, bananas and chemical leaveners. a little strange thing is that nigella tells the baker, in all her muffin recipes, not to overmix the batter; lumpy is good, smooth is not. she says a smooth batter produces tough muffins, so you might want to take note of that if you try baking muffins.
i thought the recipe had errors, because the batter felt stiff as though there was too much flour, and yet it divided only scantly into twelve muffin cases as though there was not enough flour. anyhow, i trusted nigella and baked it, thinking that the leavening power of the baking powder and soda would help in the rising. but the muffins didn't puff and dome as much as i wanted. then it registered that the recipe came from the children chapter in her book, and hence smaller muffin cases should have been used.
nevertheless, the muffins tasted very nice. not rich like a cake, just light. and tolerates a pat of butter!

i think baking is like developing a relationship with the kitchen and oven, and i think food-blogging is getting addictive.