Teff Grain Banana Muffins

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you can look forward to the following offerings from Sweetwater Farm, Fair Valley Farm, and Tiger Lily Art Company:

Watermellon, honeydew melons, cantaloupes, and other heirloom melons

Bartlett pears (delicious on pizza or in pancakes)
Akane apples and Asian pears from SLO Farm (add to a barley salad)
heirloom tomatoes, romas, and tomato deals: 10 lbs/$18, $20 lbs/$30 (make baked polenta)
corn, green beans and yellow wax beans (make a savory corn pudding)
delicata squash (no need to peel this delicate winter squash, just roast as "squash candy")
pepperoncini, poblanos, red hot cherries, anaheim chiles, and assorted pepper bargain bags

eggplants, fresh spring garlic, and onions (make ratatouille)

cucumbers and zucchini (try shredded zucchini)

carrots, cabbage, kohlrabi, and celery (make Pad Thai)

French sorrel and cutting celery (great as a pesto for soup)

new potatoes and beets (make a hash)

fresh herbs including dill, parsley, basil, and cilantro 

bietola, kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces (make lettuce wraps)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (make these teff grain muffins)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (cook up a pot of Pueblan chicken tinga)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

The Fairmount Farmers Market is a great place to learn about our local food production and to discover interesting local grains and beans. It was through the market that I discovered teff, a protein-packed, fine-kerneled grain that is delicious in porridges and pancakes. With two school age kids to rouse in the darkening mornings and send trudging off to crowded classrooms shouldering heavy backpacks, I wanted to make them some homemade snacks to sustain them through the school day. I experimented with adapting a smitten kitchen banana bread recipe, using Camas Country Mill's teff grain in place of millet, which produced tasty, tender, crackly muffins. Visiting Camas Country Mill was one of my daughter's all time favorite school trips, so I was interested to learn about Camas Country Mill's efforts to restore an old, one-room country school house and turn it into an educational center for their mill. Supporting this project, like baking tasty school snacks from local grains, is another way to teach our children about sustainable food production.

Teff Grain Banana Muffins

adapted from smitten kitchen's crackly banana bread, makes one dozen muffins

3 large ripe-to-over-ripe bananas

1 large egg

1/3 cup (80 ml) virgin coconut oil, warmed until it liquefies, or olive oil

1/3 cup (65 grams) light brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract

1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cups (180 grams) whole-wheat flour (I used Red Fife from Lonesome Whistle Farm)

1/4 cup (50 grams) uncooked teff (from Camas County Mill, or substitute millet, as in the original recipe)

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.  Dollop a 1/4 tsp coconut oil into each of 12 muffin tins. Warm briefly in the heating oven to melt, and spread around the muffin tins with a brush to coat.

2. In the bottom of a large bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon until virtually smooth but a few tiny lumps remain. Whisk in egg, then oil, brown sugar, syrup and vanilla extract. 

3. Mix together baking soda, salt, ground ginger, flour, and teff. Stir into the banana mixture until combined. 

4. Use an ice cream scoop to fill each muffin tin (makes 12 small or 10 medium muffins).  Bake until a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.