Bright Day Banana Muffins

These are THE muffins for me. I've been baking them for so long I could probably make them with my eyes closed! And yet, every time I make them, it comes as a surprise how good they taste. It's a bit like bread with butter - you just don't get tired of it! I got the recipe from a kitchen-wizard cousin of mine some years ago. I ended up losing the original recipe (a long story...), but this is how I make them:

Dry ingredients:

• 230g flour


• 75g sugar


• 1,5 tsp baking powder


• a pinch of salt


• a bit of cinnamon


• a hint of nutmeg (be careful, too much will ruin the muffins)

Liquid ingredients:

• 100g melted butter


• 1 egg


• 100ml milk


• 2 bananas, mashed with a fork

+ some extra butter (melted, 20g or so), cinnamon, and sugar

Combine the liquid ingredients with the dry ones and stir well. Pour the batter into a muffin pan (this dough makes 6 muffins). Bake 20 minutes or so, the move the muffins on a plate. When they are still hot, brush them with melted butter and sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on top. Serve as a part of brunch - or on any other occasion!

P.S. This morning I tried them with whole-grain spelt flour - and started wondering why I didn't start using whole-grain years ago...

The vanishing Vanilla Biscuits

These biscuits, or Little Vanilla Crescents, are from Recipes from a Provençal Kitchen, a book I received as a gift some 15 years ago. The author claims that they are so good that one has to eat them all straight away, and that is indeed the case! This is the recipe of the vanishing Vanilla Biscuits! You will want to do two doses, one for the guests, another one for you!

You need:
- 210g butter
- 210 g flour
- 100g ground almonds
- 50g sugar
and some sugar and vanilla sugar for the topping.

Mix together all the ingredients with your fingers until a dough forms. Let the dough rest in the fridge for some 15 to 30 minutes. Then take small (about 25 grams) amounts of the dough and roll between the palms of your hands so as to form sticks about 6 cm long. Bend them slightly to form crescents, set on a baking tray covered with a baking sheet, and bake in about 200 degrees C for some 15 minutes. Be careful not to let them gain any colour - they should remain pale. When the crescents are still warm, roll them in a mixture of sugar and vanilla sugar and place on a serving plate. This is the tricky part - the biscuits crumble easily when they are warm, but the sugar won’t stick to them if you let them cool too much.

Enjoy the biscuits, they won't last long!