Sarah's Blueberry Banana Muffins

I noticed this photo on my friend Sarah's Twitter and made a special request for the recipe to share with you all. Sarah is contributing editor (like me) at The Reader, only she manages the art section (quite beautifully I might add). We even co-wrote a story (which you can read here) about an artist whose medium is food. I was in Africa for the exhibition (which was a meal) and Sarah made the bold sacrifice to give up vegetarianism for one night for the sake of art--people, she ate SHEEP BRAIN! Sarah's blog Week Fifty Two focuses on art happenings in the Omaha area and abroad. Or you can support Sarah's day job by visiting the state of Nebraska as a tourist (she's the media relations coordinator for the state tourism board). I just decided last night to make some muffins. I had an overripe banana and some blueberries that I didn't know what to do with. I opened up my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and found a pretty generic recipe for muffins. I changed a few things according to what I had in the fridge--buttermilk instead of milk and agave instead of white sugar. I didn't use muffin cups as I thought the muffins would stick and I just stirred in the fruit without mashing it.

The resulting muffins are subtly sweet and have big chunks of blueberry and banana. They bubbled and browned really nicely. Next time I might also mix some cinnamon in the batter. I'm usually really bad at baking--I've had many, many baking disasters--so I was happy these turned out so well!

Sarah's Blueberry Banana Muffins: 1 3/4 cups flour 1/3 cup agave syrup (find at whole foods) 2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teapsoon salt (I ground fresh sea salt, around four turns of the grinder) 1 egg, beaten 3/4 cup milk (I used buttermilk) 1/4 cup cooking oil fresh blueberries one ripe banana cinnamon Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease one regular sized muffin pan. Combine flour, agave, salt and baking powder and stir. Then combine oil, buttermilk and egg, and stir with fork. Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients and stir. Batter will be lumpy. Add blueberries (as many as you like) and slice banana. Stir in slices and berries. Fill each cup to about 3/4 full. Top with cinnamon. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Makes 12 yummy muffins.