Banana Date Muffins and playing with your food

There is something incredibly visceral about pitting your own dates.

My fingers press and separate the jammy, sticky flesh to pluck out the seeds and it hearkens me back to my childhood making mud pies and playing in the wet sand, the way it clung and squished.

But, unlike my childhood, when I’m done I can lick my fingers and taste the sweetness of the Middle Eastern sun baked into the dates. Yumm!

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of whole oats
• ¼ cup fruit sugar
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 3 tbsp flax seeds
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom
• ½ tsp fresh grated nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1 cup soy milk
• ¼ cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 mashed bananas
• 1 cup pitted, chopped dates

Streusel topping

• ½ cup plus 3 tbsp ap flour
• ¼ cup brown sugar or brown sugar substitute
• ¼ cup butter or butter substitute
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp fresh grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp cardamom

Directions

1. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients and whisk together.
2. In a smaller bowl combine all wet ingredients, including mashed banana.
3. In a third bowl combine all ingredients for streusel topping – use fingers or cut with pastry cutter until it resembles coarse sand/ small pebbles and set aside
4. Gradually add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined.
5. Add in chopped dates
6. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop batter into muffin cups (it will be a wet batter)
7. Top with streusel.
8. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top and a toothpick comes clean.
9. Cool
10. Eat
11. Enjoy!