These are ridiculously delicious and simple to make and Lenten, and easily adaptable. A friend shared a recipe for Lenten banana bread/muffins, and I experimented with it a little to see if it would work using other fruit in it as well, for a 1970s tiki lounge kind of vibe. Since Jerome cannot have bananas, I often use all pineapple in this, and skip the banana entirely. I do think it is a better taste with the banana, but it's easier to make one batch of one type of muffin, rather than two batches with different ingredients. This recipe makes a lot. I have smaller amounts listed next to the main numbers so you can scale down, if you like. They keep well and freeze well, though, so if you have the pans and the space, I'd make the big batch. The larger quantity makes about four dozen full sized muffins, the smaller quantity makes almost three dozen. I honestly don't know how many loaves of bread this will make, because we always make them into muffins.

6 (4) cups pastry flour
1 (2 teaspoons) tablespoon baking powder
1 (2 teaspoons) tablespoon baking soda
2 1/2 (1) teaspoons salt
1 1/2 (1) cup oil (we used safflower)
3 (2) cups sugar
3/4 (1/2) cup orange juice
4 1/2 (3) cups mashed banana and crushed pineapple in any combination, or all of one or the other
4 (3) teaspoons vanilla paste (or extract)
4 (3) teaspoons orange zest

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease muffins tins or loaf pans well and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a stand mixer, or another, larger, bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, orange juice, banana and crushed pinapple, vanilla paste and orange zest until well blended. Stir in the flour mixture until just blended.

Scoop by quarter cup measurements into standard muffin tins, or two tablespoon scoops for mini-muffins. Fill prepared loaf pans three quarters of the way full if you are using those. Bake 20 minutes for standard muffins, 15 minutes for mini-muffins, and 45 minutes for loaves, until the surfaces bounce back when you touch them. Allow to cool about 5 minutes in the pans on a rack, then turn out to cool the rest of the way on the rack.

Labels: Fasting as a Family, Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:06 PM