banana bread muffins

I just made this recipe with changes.

Basically:

• 1 cup white sugar (I did 1/2 white and almost 1/2 dark brown because brown sugar is tasty)
  
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (I did 1 scant cup white flour and 1 cup white whole wheat because whatever)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (closer to 1/2 cup)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• added 1/4ish tsp cinnamon and a dash of vanilla because cinnamon and vanilla are nice. (NB last year I made banana bread and had no cinnamon and I used some combo of nutmeg and cardamom instead and it was great.)
  

I blended the bananas in the food processor first, then added the egg, oil, sugar...basically everything except the flour and nuts, and processed a few more times. Then I dumped it into a bowl to stir in the flour and nuts because my food processor is tiiiiny.

Spooned it into unlined muffin tins greased with flour+oil Pam, and now baking. I predict that the recipe's 30-40 minute bake time will be too long. We shall see. Verdict: at least 30 minutes is necessary.

Almond Bars

(from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/almond-bars/)
This is the weirdest recipe I've made in a while. I thought it would be more like a brownie minus the chocolate flavor/color, but they're cakey and sort of spongy. (My guess is this is due to beating the eggs and sugar, and also due to the two cups of flour; brownie recipes would have less flour for this size pan.) They seem better after a few hours/the next day when they're a little more dense.

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9x13 pan (I used flour+grease Pam spray.)

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar (I used less, between 1.5 and 1.75 cups, which is plenty)
  
• 1 cup butter, melted (I used salted butter)
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons almond extract (I used a little more, almost a tablespoon)

Beat the sugar and eggs with mixer. Add in butter, flour, almond extract. Mix well. Spread into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of pan comes out clean. (I was worried they'd be underbaked at that point, but they were fine. They seemed weird until they cooled and sat for a while.)