Thanks to a better dosage of new medication, an existential fear of losing any creativity still left in me, and copious hours of daylight to take photos around my work schedule, I am baking again.

I’ve mentioned before, but it bears repeating that I’ve taken a little nook in the kitchen as my desk. Sometimes I migrate the books I’m reading up to my proper office. Sometimes to the bed. Sometimes to the couch where I sit and highlight footnotes in between commercial breaks. Sometimes I forget what I just read and so I start a chapter all over again.

But I’m doing something with my time. I’m celebrating again. And I like to eat breakfast now, so I made some muffins to commemorate this moment.

The choice for this recipe was three-fold: 1) I had bananas to use up and crème fraiche in the fridge; 2) I got the recipe from Jo Rodgers and it seems tried and trusted and 3) I had cute new liners and wanted to use them as soon as possible.

The recipe is slightly modified from Epicurious. I added a smidge more vanilla, crème fraiche for sour cream, and a sprinkling of Demerara sugar sprinkled on top before baking for crunch.