Gotta love it. I'm a stay-at-home mommy and my biggest challenge of late is trying to figure out why these yummy looking (recipe) muffins keep turning out so awfully! This is the second time I've made them...they are a light Apple-Banana Bran Muffin.
They sound so good to me...in the early morning when they are baking in the oven they SMELL so wonderful...my mouth begins to salivate in anticipation of it's warm, moist goodness. When the timer goes off, I go to take them out of the oven...they look and smell amazing. They are flawlessly rounded and toasted to perfection, yet when I check the center, they are all but raw on the inside! I then place them back in the oven checking every couple minutes...even 10 minutes later they are raw on the inside and their proud, rounded peaks have wilted forming a now concave profile.
Finally, after 15 minutes past the maximum cooking time advised for the recipe I take them out...What will be very well is. When they have cooled enough to be handled I remove them from the muffin tin and break one open. It has a rubbery texture on the outside and takes some effort to tear it open...the inside, lurking, remains completely uncooked.
My first thought would be to reduce the temperature and increase the length of baking time but, they are already at a low 350 degrees. There is one other thing you must know...perhaps two..1) the oven I am using is older than I am...and it's not a cool antique, and 2) every time I've attempted to make something here (in Cali) containing bananas turns out the exact same way! My super yummy banana pancakes are crusty banana goo out here...let me clarify...these are recipes I've tried many times while living elsewhere and have been family favorites, yet here, they fail every time.
HELP! Is my dinosaur of an oven finally failing me or does the recipe need to be altered? It kills me to fail in any cooking attempt...because I won't eat it if it doesn't taste good and if I won't eat it it will most likely be thrown in the garbage and I HATE wasting food! Maybe all I have to do is closet this recipe for a month and try it in our NEW state! Maybe this too can be yet another in my long list of reasons why I hate California?!!
So, an emergency room visit and 2 stitches later...
In the ER they had to wrap her up like a mummy and stitch Belen up while Daddy held her head. It was quite a traumatic experience for all of us. If there ever is a next time Zak and I have firmly decided on sedation for stitches...now we are just hoping Belen won't remember...
