Banana Cardamom Muffins

When I bought my first Indian vegetarian cookbook, I hadn't even tasted cardamom-- or if I did, didn't know it. Now this makes me feel very parochial, insulated from the world that everyone else and her mother (his mother) have been in on since the first cooking show hit the networks.

It is likely that the chefs at the kosher restaurants in Seattle and St. Louis cooked with cardamom (we haven't discussed either restaurant, but we will, we will). Surely the flavor is in desserts and lassies, but when you don't know what you're looking for you can't see it, surely can't put a label on it.

Thus the story goes that after following several recipes on the Internet at some point I found this one, and of course had to alter it because it didn't work for Jews. The recipe is from Meera Sodha's FRESH INDIA. She's amazing and the pictures in her book fill my heart with happiness.

Ever since that first batch of banana cardamom muffins-- and it wasn't great because I over-baked them-- cardamom became a serious contender as one of my favorite visceral pick me ups, morning, noon or night. You simply inhale the flavor to raise your serotonin. That time the recipe worked, but it did take hours and hours to for the muffins to rise. Hence the glitch in the execution and my belief that Indian yeast is more active than Fleischmann's or Red Star.

Meera warns that this is a sticky dough and difficult to work with, but the warning should be emphasized ten times over. Making these muffins is a super pain! But if you wash your hands well, and often, they are totally worth the gooeyness.

The banana makes the dough oily, according to FD, our food chemistry medical expert, and the milk makes it sticky, a ratio of flour to liquid is very different than that of any other type of bread you've ever made. To work with the dough after the first rise, powder your hands with flour.

You can almost see the moisture of the bananas, milk and butter in the picture to the right, the first rise. Just saying, these are not as low cal as we would like them to be. There's butter, flour. . .

Meera's recipe suggests that the dry yeast in the recipe be tossed in along with the rest of the ingredients, meaning the yeast will do its job, awaken and grow,  lift the dough.

She should say that yes, in your lifetime it will rise in this fashion. (Rachelle, if you're reading, this is what happened to ours, they never rose and then I over-baked them. It is a learning curve).


On the fourth try I realized that starting the yeast in a little water with sugar and waiting for it to bubble is a far wiser strategy. It is how we tend to make challah, some of us.

One morning, using the challah-type method,  I made these for my mother-in-law, started the first rise at 8:00 am. The eight rolls were complete by 10:30 am. She loved them. She can't get over how the cardamom seems to blend with the banana to create an entirely new flavor. She's right.

Thus let's try it again.

Step 1: Soften 2 T of butter and set aside.

Step 2: In a large mixing bowl place 2 t. yeast (it doesn't have to be fast-acting) in 1/4 cup water with 1/2 T  sugar.

Step 3: Take the chill off 1/2 cup of milk (microwave 8 seconds) but be sure it isn't hot not even a little bit hot, it has to be tepid- meaning not exactly cold but closer to cold than hot- or it will kill the yeast.  If you're unsure, don't bother warming the milk at all. The chill won't matter much, you've started your yeast already. Set the milk aside, too.

Step 4: When the yeast is bubbling, add the milk and butter.

Step 5: Mix the following together in a separate bowl :

1 T plus 2 t. sugar 
1/2 t. cardamom mixed 
2 cups of flour or a little more

Mash in 2 ripe bananas.

Step 6: Add the mixture to the large bowl with the yeast, milk, and butter and mix/knead the dough the best you can;  it will be sticky. Don't worry. You can't ruin this recipe.   Let it rise until it is double in size.

Step 7: Preheat the oven to 375.

Step: 8  Divide into large pieces and roll them into balls. Place in muffin tins and allow to rise again. There won't be a dozen, probably more like 8 or 9.

Step 9: Baste with a whole beaten egg. You can see how it will slide off the muffins from the picture, but do your best.

Bake until brown-- test with a toothpick.

Heavenly.




The Kosher Indian