Banana Muffins with Crumb Topping

Muffins always make for a nice breakfast or snack.  Be careful not to bake these too long though, or the crumb topping will start to melt and will get decidedly less crumb topping-like.

Muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 bananas

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Crumb Topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 F

In a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  In another large bowl, mash bananas with a fork, then add in sugars, egg, oil and vanilla.  Mix thoroughly, then add in dry ingredients and mix again.

Coat muffin tins with butter, then divide the batter into 12 tins.

To make the crumb topping, combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl.  Add butter, then mix with a fork until crumbly.  Sprinkle topping onto muffins.  Bake muffins for 20 min, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Yogurt

Yogurt has a lot of uses.  Not only can you eat it by itself, but plenty of recipes call for yogurt.  If you use it a lot, it becomes much more cost effective to make it yourself, especially if you use Greek yogurt.

Makes 1/2 gallon of yogurt, or 1 quart of Greek yogurt.

1/2 Gallon Milk
1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt

Pour milk into a large pot or double boiler.  Cover the pot, then heat the milk on medium high.  Stir the milk often until it reaches 85-90 C (185-195 F).  Remove the pot from the stove top and let it cool to 50-55 C (122-130 F).  If you want to cool it quickly, place the pot in a sink full of cold water.  Once the milk cools, mix in the 1/2 cup of yogurt.  Pour the milk/yogurt mixture into glass jars.  Place the jars in a cooler, and fill the cooler with 55 C (130 F) water.  Let the cooler sit overnight.

To make Greek yogurt, place a strainer over a large bowl, and line the strainer with paper towels.  Pour the yogurt into the strainer, and then let it sit in the refrigerator for 8 hours.  After that, flip the yogurt onto a plate, remove the paper towels, and scoop the yogurt back into the jar.

Crusty Bread

I would say that I looked long and hard for this recipe, but I found it over at Simply so Good after a quick google search.  I will likely be doing a lot of Janet's recipes (as long as she doesn't mind), since all the ones I've tried so far have been winners.

3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 3/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Yeast
1 1/2 cup Water

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  Then add the water.  Mix until there are no dry spots left.  Cover the bowl, then let it sit for at least 12-18 hr.

Heat the oven to 450 F, then put a pot with a lid in the oven.  Be sure that the pot can stand that much heat: A dutch oven is probably your best bet.  After half an hour, remove the pot and carefully butter the bottom of the pot.  Put the dough in, cover it, and return it to the oven for half an hour.  Then, remove the lid and bake for another 15 min.  That's it!  Remove from the oven and let it cool.