Strawberry Banana Muffins (A Post a Day #4)

Nothing heavy or profound today, I'm simply doing my duty. I know better than to bring up a recipe without posting it first, but this time I honestly thought I'd shared it before. It's one of our breakfast items that we have irregularly because of all the sugar. It's very, very good, though probably bad for you.

Our last batch was grilled, so I'm giving the grilling baking instructions, as promised.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

4 eggs, beaten
2 cups sugar
2 cups frozen strawberries
2 mashed bananas
1 cup oil
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dash nutmeg

Prepare the coals on the grill (if using an oven, preheat to 350 degrees). Grease 3 muffin tins.

Mix dry ingredients. In an electric mixer combine eggs, sugar, strawberries, bananas, and oil. Beat on medium speed until the batter turns pinkish (about 3 minutes). Add the flour mixture and stir by hand until flour is moistened. Do not over mix.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. If you run out of batter and have leftover muffin spaces in the tin, fill the blank spots 1/2 full with water to ensure an even bake of the surrounding muffins. (If baking in oven bake 20 to 25 minutes.)

If the charcoal bricks evenly gray with no flame, arrange the coals to the outer edge of the grill. Place muffin tins in the center so that they are not directly over the coals. Bake approximately 20 minutes. Prop open or close the grill lid to regulate the temperature. You want it approximating 350 degrees. Increase or decrease time accordingly. Muffins are done if a toothpick inserted in the center of the center muffin tests dry.



P.S. I can't seem to keep these around long enough to get a decent picture.

It's Summer; Let's Grill Everything!

My neighbor grills all summer long, and she doesn't limit herself to meats. She actually bakes on her grill, treating it as an outdoor oven. Her bread and homemade pizza are simply wonders of the summer.

So far, I've been slow to experiment with using my grill for anything other than slabs of chicken or beef, but today I grilled meatloaf and baked potatoes for our dinner and had plenty of coals left over. I decided to whip up tomorrow's breakfast muffins and set them baking. That, of course, reminded me that I had a birthday cake to bake, so why not?

By the time I got everything mixed up and on the grill, I was looking at needing to add more coals. That can be a problem midway through baking something on your grill. So, if you are going to try to use your grill as an outdoor oven, you must own one of these...

With a charcoal chimney, you can get the next set of coals ready without exposing your food to excess flame or starter fluid. When my second batch of coals was ready to add to my "oven," I moved all my muffin tins to one side of the grill, removed a grate, dumped in the hot coals, and then arranged them where they were needed.

Just so you know, Strawberry Banana Muffins are really good with a little smokey flavor adding a touch of savory to the sweet. I'll let you know tomorrow how the gluten free chocolate cake tastes grilled.



P.S. Blogger just informed me that I've not posted my Strawnanna Bread recipe. I'll get that up this week.