Mos Eisley Morsels by Jack Bruckner

Recipe

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing the baking dish

2 C all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

3 large bananas

1 large egg

2 TBS vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Lightly grease an 8 inch square baking dish
3. put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt into a sifter. Sift the ingredients into a large bowl
4. In another large bowl, thoroughly mash the bananas with a fork or a potato masher, add the egg, vegetable oil and vanilla and stir until well blended.
5. Add the flour mixture with a rubber spatula and mix the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top of the batter with the spatula
7. Using pot holders, place the baking dish into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Using pot holders, transfer the dish to a cooling rack and cut into squares. Makes 12 morsels.

Preparation Method

In my first attempt at baking at home, I made Mos Eisley Morsels which are little squares of muffin-like food. I found the recipe in my Star Wars cookbook. Because the directions called for mixing the dry ingredients separate from the wet ingredients, I used the Muffin Method. There are 5 steps to the Muffin Method. I followed all five steps: measure all ingredients, pulse or sift all the dry goods together, whisk or stir all the wet ingredients together, fold the wet ingredients into the dry and combine & pour combined mix into a pan to bake. It's ok to have lumps in the batter. I did not over mix. If you over mix the texture could become uneven because over-mixing creates gluten and gluten makes more air bubbles.

I didn't change anything from the recipe. I did use a knife to insert after baking to make sure it was done, instead of using a toothpick. It took exactly 30 minutes to bake. You are suppose to cut the baked good into squares so that they are considered 'morsels'. You could eat them as a snack or dessert.

Critique

While the morsels were baking, the kitchen smell reminded me of the smell of pumpkin bread. I think it is because of the spices I used in the recipe. I was salivating while waiting to eat it. When I pulled the baked good out of the oven it looked like a square bread. It was brown and had some cracks on the top. The texture was springy and has small holes. The morsel was soft but held together. The morsels didn't have any added sugar in the ingredients but they were very sweet. I think that's because of the sweet bananas. The taste reminded me of banana cinnamon bread. It was really tasty. I had several morsels. The morsels were very moist and fluffy, not dense. They went great with a glass of milk. I also realized that the recipe made 16 morsels, not 12. More to eat!

I really liked these tasty morsels and I would make them again. They were super easy to make and we had all the ingredients at home. I would maybe consider adding chocolate chips to the batter next time. I learned that I could sift ingredients without making a big mess and that I was able to bake something with very little help from my mom.

~Jack, Hr 2