My Favourite Banana Muffin Recipe

For years I've owned a recipe book called 'Muffins - Fast and Fantastic' by Susan Reimer. I've had it so long I can't even remember where I bought it, but I'm glad I did - it's one of my favourite baking cookbooks and one of the only ones I own where I've tried pretty much all the recipes. Just flicking through the pages now, I think I've tried all but 2 - and the muffins I've made from this book have always turned out really tasty. The author is a Canadian cook who now lives in England, and so all the recipes have been adapted for the British kitchen (so no need for 'cup' measures!).

My favourite muffin recipes include double chocolate muffins (a classic!) and apple spiced muffins. But today I will share the latest tasty muffins I've made from the book - banana muffins. I also added some chopped walnuts to make them banana nut muffins, but this is an optional extra. I personally find that the walnuts add a lovely crunch to these moist muffins, plus they have great health benefits! The BBCGoodFood website reports:

'Their superior antioxidant content means walnuts are useful in the fight against cancer. They're also a good source of mono-unsaturated, heart-friendly fats, and studies show they help to lower the bad form of cholesterol (LDL). Finally, they're rich in omega-3, so they're a great alternative if you don't eat oily fish.'

(http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/wellbeing/features/healthy-nuts/1/)

 

In our household we always have bananas in the fruit bowl, and this is a great recipe for using up those bananas that are starting to turn black - well-ripened bananas provide the best flavour & texture.

Recipe - Banana Muffins / Banana Nut Muffins
Makes 11-12 muffins

Ingredients:

280g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon salt

3 large ripe bananas

120g caster sugar

1 egg

85g margarine or butter, melted

60ml milk

60g walnuts, chopped (optional)

Method:   

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Place 12 muffin cases into a muffin tin. 

2. In a bowl sift together the  dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt)

3. In another bowl mash the bananas with a potato masher. Add sugar, beaten egg, melted butter and milk. Stir well.

4. Pour the wet ingredients mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir until combined. Batter will be slightly lumpy, but no dry flour should be visible. If making banana nut muffins, add chopped walnuts at this point.

5. Fill muffin cases ¾ full and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until tops appear lightly browned and spring back when touched.

Pre-baking:

Post-baking (pre-eating!):

Another alternative is to substitute the chopped walnuts for 85g of plain or milk chocolate chips - for tasty banana choc chip muffins!

Lisa x

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