Paula Deen’s Pecan Pie Muffins Made Even Better

Remember when I was making Banana Bread and messed up on those candied pecans that I wanted to add to the bread? And what to do with that concrete blob of pecans. Make Pecan Pie Muffins of course.

This recipe—the original one anyway—is so easy even a cave man can do it. I just had to say that. That commercial bugs me by the way.

Did I ask, do you like pecan pie? If you do, then you will LOVE these muffins even more. Well, at least I do.

Could one make a more rich, melt in your mouth muffin than these? Why yes, when you add chopped up concrete candied pecans. It’s like the gooey butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture that caramelized over the pecans melted into the muffins causing an explosion of gooey goodness. It is so rich that I can only eat one. Really. Paul Deen’s way, I could eat more than one. My way are really, really rich. But really, really good.

So, I wonder. If I’ve modified a recipe, is it my own? What if two parts of the recipe came from two different people and I had combined them, is it my recipe? Well, I didn’t invent it and wouldn’t have without the recipes of the two, so I’ll credit both.

Cream 1 stick softened butter with ¾ cup packed brown sugar. Add 2 beaten eggs and mix well. Add ½ cup flour and stir until combined. Stir in 1 cup candied chopped pecans (see my version below). Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans. Deen’s book said it makes eight, but I make a full dozen. I’ve made these as little mini muffins too and they are just as good. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Deen suggests serving warm with more butter, but I’m telling you that my version does not need any more butter. The muffin pans had butter in them after I took the muffins out of the pan!

Candied Pecans—see What Katie’s Baking. If you read my banana bread blog, you’ll see I modified these pecans, messed them up and tried again. With the messed up pecans, I added them to this Pecan Pie Muffin recipe.

Regular recipe for Candied Pecans:
1 tablespoon butter melted on medium heat in saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon along with 1 cup pecans. Mix until coated and sugar starts to stick. Set aside and cool.

Well, I didn’t think my sugar was going to stick as the sugar/cinnamon mixture seemed crumbly, so I decided to add another tablespoon of butter. After I did that, it was apparent that the butter caused the sugar/cinnamon mixture to come off the pecans, so I added another 2 tablespoons of sugar and another ½ cup pecans. I felt like there was enough cinnamon. I stirred for a good five minutes and when it didn’t look like the mixture was going to stick to the pecans any more than what it was, I dumped them into a bowl. When they cooled, I had one big blog of hard candied sugar/cinnamon pecans—that of which I chopped in my food process and used for these muffins.

Banana Bread

Sometimes I just want simple—where you mix all the ingredients in a bowl and put it in the pan. That’s what this banana bread is about. It comes from Recipes from the Heart (Sacred Heart Parish—where I grew up and went to school). This particular recipe is from Mary Amelong, however, I modified it. Some of it intentionally and other parts not so.

Here’s the original recipe with my version in parentheses.
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (I used 5 whole bananas and not sure what that came out to be cup wise.)
3 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg (I used ½ teaspoon freshly ground from the nut.)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 cup water or orange juice (I forgot this completely.)
1 cup pecans (I made candied pecans.)

Blend all ingredients. Pour in greased bundt pan. Bake at 375 for 1 hour.

So here’s what happened. I decided to make banana bread, went into the kitchen, gathered all the ingredients and boom, when it came time to get the eggs, I realized I didn’t have any. Okay, I did have some farm fresh ones from my friend Kim, but I refused to bake with them. One needs to eat farm fresh eggs straight up and not waste them in baking… unless of course you just have them coming out of the hens right and left and HAVE to bake with them. I find them precious and won’t bake with them.

I mashed my bananas and then added all the other ingredients on top of the bananas (except for the eggs) figuring it would keep the banana from turning brown and yucky while I ran out to the store.

After taking a look in the mirror, with sweat dripping from my forehead, I decided there was no time to doll myself up and went out—no make up, hair all kind of crazy, unpainted toenails, bleached stained shirt. I was sure I’d run into someone since that usually happens when you are looking your finest. I kept my sunglasses on, dashed in, grabbed two dozen eggs, snatched a loaf of bread off the shelf and some Tea Tree Oil for that fungus on my big toe. The lines were long. I acted casual as if I was dolled up, going out for tea. The lady in front of me picked up the chocolate covered almonds, looked them over and put them back. I dare not touch them because they’d end up in my gut and did I tell you I’m trying to lose a few pounds? Why am I making banana bread? Oh yeah, I have a husband with a sweet tooth.

By the time I made it back home, I thought I had everything in the bowl except the eggs, so I plopped them in, stirred up the mixture and put it in the pans. At this point, I’m still not remembering the water.

Backing up a little, before I left for the store I got on Katie’s blog for those candied pecans that she had in her banana bread. I read the recipe, but while cooking the pecans, it didn’t seem right, so I added another tablespoon butter. What could it hurt? Seeing that it wasn’t working, I then added more sugar. It seemed like there was enough cinnamon in there for seven Danish loafs, so I skipped adding more cinnamon. I threw in more pecans. After a good five minutes and realizing it wasn’t going to work, I dumped it in the bowl and started all over—following Katie’s directions exactly.

Here's the first batch of pecans:

Since I now had some extra pecans that turned into some concrete nightmare, I chopped them up in my little food processor.

I had more than enough batter to fill my Demarle bundt pan and put the rest in a loaf pan—you know the kind of pan that the bread should go in. I sprinkled the top with brown sugar (a trick I learned from another banana bread recipe) but this time I decided to add those chopped candied pecans.

Pecans. Pecans. Oh, I’ll make some Pecan Pie Muffins from Paula Deen’s cookbook. They are easy and I’ll be able to do something with these candied pecans. Paula’s recipe calls for plain ole pecans, but who knows, maybe I’ve created a masterpiece. I’ll save that for another blog.

All in all… the taste of the banana bread was good, but it was a bit chewy. But I like chewy. If you toast it and add some butter, well it’s even better. But what’s not to like adding butter?