From Lisa Barnes
There’s an important food science question circulating at my son’s preschool… what are those black little things in banana bread and muffins? Most just assume it’s something to do with the overripe bananas. But one of my son’s teachers (and a foodie with a cooking background) says she’s never noticed them in her breads. She even brought me a sample. But now that the mystery has gone on, she and I have made various banana breads and muffins with various results — all tasty but some with black things and some without. Recently I was at a cooking class at Restaurant TWO in San Francisco and asked Andrea the pastry chef. She probably thought I was crazy. She said “I don’t know. I’ve never not had them in my bread”. But then I’ve seen pictures in magazines and cookbooks both with and without the little black things.
I’ve consulted the “big book” too. That’s Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. OChef.com takes questions about “life’s vexing cooking questions”, however, they say due to the volume of questions you’re never sure of a timely answer. He has a mention about ingredients such as blueberries and walnuts being folded into batters and turning colors (such as blue and green) and this is because of the solids in the batter and the distribution (or over use) of baking soda. But these little black things are pretty uniform. So I’m not satisfied with that as an explanation for the bananas.
I’m hoping someone who reads this will know what I’m talking about and might even be able to solve the mystery. Anyone?
Organic Mini Banana Apple Bran Muffins
(from The Petit Appetit Cookbook)
These mini muffins have all the flavor of a big muffin, but fit nicely into little hands. Of course you can also make these in a regular full size muffin pan, just remember to increase baking time to 15 to 18 minutes and check for doneness. Be sure you’ve already introduced wheat and eggs before giving these muffins to baby. This also makes a good use for baby’s extra apple puree.
1 cup organic wheat flour
½ cup organic oat bran
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (1 stick) organic unsalted butter
¾ cup organic applesauce or homemade apple puree
3 medium organic bananas, 1 mashed (about ½ cup) and 2 sliced
½ cup organic light brown sugar
2 cage free, organic eggs
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease 24 mini muffin cups or 12 regular muffin cups.
With a fork, combine flour, bran, salt, and soda in a small mixing bowl. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat or in a microwave for 25 seconds on High. In a large bowl combine butter, applesauce, mashed banana, sugar and eggs. Mix together with a rubber spatula. Add flour mixture to applesauce mixture and stir until just blended. Batter will be lumpy and very moist.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full. Place banana slice on top of each muffin. Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown and set. Cool muffins in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before turning out muffins.
Makes 24 mini muffins or 12 regular muffins
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Lisa Barnes is author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler
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Tags: children, Healthy Recipe, healthy recipes, Kids, Lisa Barnes, Muffins, Organic Food, organic recipe for children
Mystery black thingies: I have read that bananas don’t have true seeds but are sterile fruits where some have no seeds, some have “vestigial” seeds or dark marks where seeds would be. Perhaps the black spots in banana bread are just where those mashed dark vestigial seed zones are dispersed?
I sometimes get them in my banana bread too, but I never thought about it before!
That sounds good to me. We’ll see if anyone else weighs in.
Once you notice those black things, you’ll never look at a piece of banana bread without noticing again. Sorry.
Thanks Beth!
Lisa
Did you ever find your answer? I too was wondering this because I just noticed them in my recent loaf, but didn’t see them in the past. I have also noticed them in other people’s bread before. I’m a little creeped out by them!
The closest explaination I can find is from Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. He talks about produce (blueberries, bananas, carrots) and nuts (esp. walnuts) when in cake and muffin batters often changing color due to the mix of baking soda and alkaline pockets created when mixing. Some of these items, such as banana, are senstive to this pH of the alkaline batter and change color.