Banana Muffins

Method

1. mash3 min
   bananas to a chunky purée
   spotted-black bananas with a fork, some small lumps surviving — the lumps bake into pockets of concentrated banana, and the ripeness rule is the same economics as the bread: the freezer is where this recipe's main ingredient comes from
2. whisk3 min
   wet: banana + melted butter + brown sugar + egg + vanilla
   in one bowl; dry (flour + soda + powder + salt + cinnamon) in another — the muffin method's whole premise is that the two sides meet exactly once, briefly
3. fold2 min
   ten strokes, lumps welcome, add-ins on stroke eight
   dry into wet and STOP at barely-combined — muffin batter that looks slightly wrong (floury streaks, lumps) bakes right, and batter that looks smooth bakes into rubber with tunnels; this is the quick-bread rule at its most extreme and least negotiable
4. bake19 min
   425°F for 5 minutes, then 350°F for ~14 — the dome trick
   cups filled generously to the brim (a modest fill makes a modest muffin), oats pinched on top, into the hot oven — the initial blast springs the crown upward before the structure sets, then the drop finishes the interior; tester clean at the dome's center
5. rest8 min
   5 in the tin, then racked
   briefly — muffins are the rare bake meant warm, and their whole argument over banana bread is timeline: forty minutes from black bananas to breakfast instead of ninety