Chocolate-Rye Banana Muffins

One-of-a-kind 100% Rye Muffin, No Sugar Added

Happy New Year, fellow bakers and friends! The first bake of 2015 has to set the tone for the rest of the year: get out of the comfort zone and be foolish.

“When you try hard at everything you do, even if it feels utterly foolish to do so, you're opening up future doors and possibilities that you might not be seeing in the moment,” Ed Helms said in his Cornell’s 2014 convocation speech. I totally buy into his idea that those “foolish diversions” are the real nectar of life.

How foolish or bold can you get with muffins? A lot. First, there were no white flour or sugar to speak of. Second, there was chipotle chile pepper in there to really wake up the senses in your mouth. Third, there was low-fat diary. I reconstituted liquid buttermilk by mixing water with a dry cultured buttermilk blend powder. Muffins don’t have to be boring.

More than a few changes have been made to the double chocolate chips banana muffin recipe from Scientifically Sweet that ABC bakers are supposed to bake for the January's challenge. Please see the cheat sheet below for details. The changes are highlighted in red. Instead of all-purpose flour called for in the recipe, I used 100% rye flour in my bake. (I know I was pushing the limit here.) For those who look for gluten-free alternatives, use buckwheat flour instead. I would have used buckwheat flour but I had a difficult time finding them in the local food stores. For those who desire a conventional lighter texture in their muffins, use 50% pastry flour together with 50% rye flour as outlined in the cheat sheet.

Knock-your-socks-off moist chocolaty spicy bite

Granulated sugar was completely eliminated in this recipe. Honey and dates were used as sweeteners, supplementing the natural sweetness of ripe bananas and 72% cacao dark chocolate used in the muffins. Generally, honey and dates make successful sugar substitutes in baking quick breads.

You'd find a column of weight (in grams) measurements I have converted from and, in addition to, the volume measurements in the cheat sheet. I do not use volume measurements because it is nearly impossible to achieve the accuracy and precision needed in baking, and cooking, when you measure the ingredients by cups and teaspoons. How finely the food is chopped, how firmly it is packed, how rounding is done to get to the nearest common fraction can routinely throw off volume measurements by up to 15%, enough to diminish the quality of the recipes.

Maybe it is foolhardy to be a stickler for precision in the kitchen?

Darkest brown muffins wrapped in brightest red liners