20/10/2018

Banana Chocolate Muffins

Name: Banana Chocolate Muffins
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 17 min
Total time: 37 min
Ingredients: 325 g self raising flour; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1 tsp baking powder; 0.5 tsp salt; 2 large ripe bananas (mashed); 2 large eggs; 240 ml yogurt (or buttermilk or milk); 200 g caster sugar; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 120 g butter (melted); 120 g milk or dark chocolate (roughly chopped); 1-2 tbsp demerara sugar (for sprinkling); 50 g milk or dark chocolate ((for decoration))

Banana Chocolate Muffins are so easy to make, yet taste incredible. Light and moist, filled with banana flavour, chunks of milk chocolate and a hint of cinnamon. Best made with very ripe bananas, they’re a great way of using those brown bananas in your fruit bowl.

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BANANA CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

There’s a certain Banana & Chocolate Cake I’ve been making for years. Full of banana flavour, plenty of milk chocolate and with a rich buttercream filling. But it does take quite a while to bake. But it’s much quicker to whip up and cook a batch of muffins than one large cake.

So it was only logical that, after the success of my Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffins, that I’d turn the Banana & Chocolate Cake into a muffin.

RIPE BANANAS, PLEASE

I think you need really ripe bananas for making cakes, muffins and breads. In fact, I can’t abide under ripe bananas as I think they’re quite tasteless. That’s probably because an unripe banana can contain around eighty percent starch. But during the ripening process, that starch turns to sugar and more flavour.

MILK OR DARK CHOCOLATE?

I’ve used milk chocolate in my Banana Chocolate Muffins as I think the slight creaminess goes well with the banana flavour. But feel free to use dark chocolate if you like. However, I’d stay clear of white chocolate as that’d probably be a little too cloying combined with the sweet banana.

I always buy bars of chocolate for making cakes and muffins, never chocolate chips, and chop them up myself. I think having some small and some larger pieces of chocolate is much more interesting than the uniformity of chocolate chips.

Traditionally, many muffin recipes contain buttermilk. But I always use full-fat plain yogurt in my muffins, and in my scones too. I always have a big tub of yogurt in the fridge anyway and find it gives a light texture and good flavour. Use buttermilk if you like, or any type of milk.

I like a slightly crunchy topping on my muffin. To achieve this I sprinkle a little demerara sugar over each one before baking.

TIPS FOR MUFFIN MAKING

Prepping the muffin mix is quick, so preheat your oven first.
Don’t over-mix. To get a light texture only fold the ingredients just enough to combine. Don’t worry if the mixture looks a bit lumpy.
Muffins only take about 17 minutes to cook, so keep an eye on them and turn the temperature down if they darken before the centres are cooked. A skewer or cocktail stick should come out clean when they’re done.

Although you’ll need to wait until the cooked muffins are completely cold before drizzling over the chocolate topping, I think they’re best served warm. Not only does this bring out the banana flavour and aroma, it starts to melt the chunks of chocolate inside. I reheat the muffins in a microwave for about 15-20 seconds which is enough to heat the inside without melting the topping.

While these Banana Chocolate Muffins are fabulous as a sweet snack, they make a really good pudding too. Heat some up, for a little longer than suggested above, so that the topping is starting to melt. Serve with homemade custard. Yum!