Banana Almond and Choc Chip Muffins

I promised the Frenchie 'Nuts' in the next batch of muffins, so I gave him almonds with bananas, oh and naturally, for the Nutella King, I threw in chocolate chips too. 
They seemed to go down rather well, three muffins in one afternoon is quite a record, and more for breakfast today too! 

Another successful baking session. Better go and have the last one with a cup of coffee before someone else beats me to it.

In large bowl mix together:
300g self-raising flour
75g ground almonds
220g caster sugar

In a small bowl mix together:
90g melted butter
half cup sour cream
quarter cup milk
2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry then stir in:
half cup chopped ripe banana (top up with flaked almonds if necessary)
100g milk chocolate chips

Dive the mixture between 12 muffin cases
Bake on Gas 5/6 for 20-25 minutes
Leave in the tin for a few minutes before removing on to a wire rack to cool

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Here's a twist on an old favourite. Banana and chocolate always go together, so finding a ripe one just before I began baking made the batch more interesting. These should be a great breakfast muffin when I'm sat in a field outside my tent with the sun shining and not a care in the world. 

Oh how I love my summer holidays.

In a large bowl sift together:
300g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder

Stir in:
220g caster sugar

In a small bowl mix  together:
90g melted butter
half cup sour cream
quarter cup milk
2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry

Then stir in:
1 mashed banana (half cup)
100g white chocolate chunks

Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases
Bake on Gas 5/6 for 20-25 minutes
Leave in the tin for a few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool

Banana, Honey and White Chocolate Muffins

Round one of Quiz Night was - list all the ingredients I used to bake the muffins.

Both teams missed out a few of the answers - so here's what I did.

In a large bowl mix together:
375g self-raising flour
220g caster sugar

In a small bowl mix together:
90g melted butter
half cup sour cream
quarter cup honey
2 large eggs
vanilla essence

Mix the wet into the dry then stir in:
half cup white chocolate chunks
half cup mashed ripe banana

Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases
Bake on Gas 5/6 for 20-25 minutes
Leave in the tin for a couple of minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool.

Banana Blueberry Apple Sauce Muffins

Today is the Eurovision song contest and a few of my favourite people (and a couple of gorgeous dogs) are coming round for a bit of supper tonight to cheer on their respective nations! 

Unfortunately I have run out of sour cream, so I thought I'd throw in some more apple sauce, in the hope that this will make the muffins really squelchy - by this evening I'll know if that was a crazy idea or not. 

Today's combination was a bit of a 'what's in the cupboard' mix, using an old ripe banana, the remainder of the blueberries and a bit of nutmeg for good measure.

In a large bowl mix together:
375g self-raising flour
220g caster sugar
half tsp nutmeg

In a small bowl mix together:
90g melted butter
half cup milk
2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry then stir in:
half cup apple sauce
1 medium mashed banana
quarter cup blueberries

Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases
Bake Gas 5/6 for 20-25 minutes
Leave in the tin for few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool

Let's hope these get 'douze points' from everyone later on.

Sugarless, Flourless Cake!!!

I picked this little recipe up off a facebook link the other week and have been waiting to find three ripe bananas ever since. This evening I managed to get together all the other ingredients, so here we go:

 In a large bowl mix together:
3 ripe mashed bananas
third cup apple sauce
2 cups oats
quarter cup almond milk
half cup raisins (I used currants)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp cinnamon

Chuck it in a greased loaf tin and spread evenly
Bake Gas 4 for 15-20 minutes

It looks like a giant flapjack - can't wait to try it! But that will have to wait for the Church picnic tomorrow - unless I can't hold out. Then I'll be tasting it for breakfast instead.

But it is a great cake for anti flour dieters, and diabetics who love cake - like my dad!

Apple & Banana Cinnamon Muffins

Baking day has begun in earnest today ready for our party this evening. My first offering turned out to be these, I was given some apples, I have no idea if they are cookers or eaters, so I pureed them in sugar water and threw in some cinnamon and a little ginger. Then to make it go a bit further I threw in a banana for good measure and made a great puree.

In a large bowl mix together:
375g self-raising flour
220g caster sugar

In a small bowl mix together:
90g melted salted butter
half cup sour cream
quarter cup milk
2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry then stir in:
1 cup apple puree *

Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases
Bake on Gas 5/6 for 20-25 minutes
Leave in the tin for a few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool

Then serve to a dozen friends :)

* to make the puree
peel and core 2 large apples
chop into small chunks
put in a pan with a tablespoon of water and 2 tablespoons of sugar
sprinkle with some ground cinnamon and ground ginger
add a diced banana
cook until pulped - use the potato masher to pulp if required

Toffee Banoffi Pie

It would appear that Norwegians have a liking for golden syrup, but rather than trying to put it in a muffin I dug out this recipe from an ancient cookbook and adapted it to suit. It's yummy, and tastes rather like butterscotch.

Make a pie base, or cheat, like I did, and buy one ready done.
Slice a banana to cover the base of the pie

Then make the filing:

Heat 150ml milk, but don't boil it

In a small pan melt:
65g butter
40g soft brown sugar 

Stir in 25g plain flour

Whisk in the hot milk, and stir as it thickens and reaches boiling point
Cook for 2/3 minutes while stirring

Remove from heat

Add 75g golden syrup and whisk again

Spread the filing over the banana pie base

Chill

Decorate with whipped cream or grated chocolate if you really want to party!!

No milk Banana Pancakes!

A friend of mine made these the other day and the picture looked delicious, so I thought I'd give them a go - what could possibly go wrong - they are only pancakes after all!

Whisk up:
2 eggs
1 banana

Pour the pancakes into an oiled pan and throw blueberries in

Attempt to turn the pancake over (this is where it all went horribly wrong) to cook the other side

In the end I turned it into scrambled banana egg and sprinkled a bit of sugar on top. It was delicious, but not pretty.

At the weekend I met someone who had their first taste of one of my muffins and asked if I ever had any failures. With muffins, rarely, but today certainly.
On with the washing up.
 

Banana, Honey and White Chocolate Muffins

Well this is my 150th post - not what I had in mind when I started this blogging a few years ago, but it's always furn to be dong something unexpected.
In that time I have had over 7700 visitors from 64 countries around the globe, so I may as well keep baking and mixing new flavour combos as I go because it seems the whole world loves muffins. 

In a large bowl mix together:
375g self-raising flour
220g caster sugar

In small bowl mix together:
90g melted butter
half cup sour cream
quarter cup runny honey
2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry then stir in:
half cup mashed banana
100g white chocolate chunks

Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases
Bake on Gas 5/6
For 20-25 mins
Leave in the tin for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool

Banana and Custard Muffins

There was a break time discussion about the blandness of bananas this morning. I suggested that they weren't bland when eaten cream. Or custard, someone else piped up! Then before you know it someone wanted to know if I'd put that combo into a muffin yet, and because I hadn't tried it yet, and had an over ripe banana in the fruit bowl again, I find myself a few hours later about to take my first bite of my latest flavour invention. It smells gorgeous in my kitchen this evening. Oh how I love custard.

In a large bowl mix together:

375g self-raising flour

220g caster sugar

level teaspoon of nutmeg

In a small bowl mix together:

90g melted butter

half cup sour cream

quarter cup (ready made) custard

2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry then stir in:

half a cup of mashed banana

half a cup of diced glace cherries

Put a dollop of the mixture to cover the base of 12 muffin cases

make a little well in it

drop in a teaspoon of custard in each one

then cover with the remaining muffin batter

Bake on Gas 5/6 for 20-25 mins

Leave in the tin for a few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool

I imagine these will taste even better tomorrow once the custard has had a chance to set a bit, but the one on my plate won't make it to the air tight tin tonight.

Pomegranate, Banana and White Chocolate Muffins

It's 5 o'clock, I've been home an hour and the second batch of birthday muffin inventions is in the oven. The kitchen looks like a disaster area, as usual, but by break time tomorrow when we will have sampled the muffins and the state of the kitchen will be a distant memory.

In a large bowl mix together:

375g self-raising flour

220g caster sugar

In a small bowl mix together:

90g melted butter

half cup sour cream

quarter cup pomegranate juice (theres just enough inside one pomegranate)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry ingredients

For the fruit content you'll need 1 cup of fruit in total. 

I used:

The pips from 1 pomegranate

1 mashed small banana

Then topped up the cup with white chocolate chunks

Stir in the fruit

Divide between 12 muffin cases

Bake on Gas 5/6 for 20-25 mins

Leave in the tin for a few minutes, before removing onto a wire rack to cool

Blueberry and Banana Muffins

Back after a few trips away, now baking can recommence, I was feeling a bit peckish this evening  so I decided to make some Blueberry Muffins, and the over ripe banana ended up in them too! Now they are out of the oven I can have supper and look at the holiday photos at the same time.
 

In a large bowl mix together:

375g self raising flour

220g caster sugar
 

In a small bowl mix together:

90g melted butter

half cup sour cream

quarter cup milk

2 large eggs
 

Mix the wet into the dry then add:

125g blueberries

1 small mashed banana
 

Divide between 12 muffin cases

Bake Gas 5/6 for 20-25 mins

Leave in the tin a few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool

Emptying the fruit bowl Muffins!

I'm off visiting tomorrow and wanted to take some muffins with me to my friends. I had a look as to what was lurking in the fruit bowl, and the kiwi and bananas had both seen better days so here they are in a muffin!
 

In a large bowl mix together:

375g self raising flour

220g caster sugar
 

In a small bowl mix together:

90g melted butter

half cup sour cream

quarter cup milk

2 large eggs
 

Mix the wet into the dry
 

Stir in:

half cup chopped banana

half cup diced kiwi 
 

Divide into 12 muffins cases

Sprinkle with purple edible glitter if you're feeling a bit sparkly and

Bake Gas 5/6

20-25 mins 

Leave in the tin for a couple of minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool

Banana & Coconut Muffins

As promised baking day has come round and I said Rosie could help me bake the first batch for Holly and Tim's housewarming today. We used up some overly ripe bananas and added coconut (without her noticing). Rosie was excellent at putting the glitter on top. Proper princess muffins!!

In a large bowl mix together:

300g self raising flour

75g shredded coconut

220g caster sugar

In a small bowl mix together:

90g melted butter

half cup sour cream

quarter cup milk

2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry and add:

one cup mashed banana

Divide between 12 muffins cases
Bake on Gas 5/6 
20-25 mins
Leave in the tin for a few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool

And most importantly save one for the princess who helped to bake them - or else!!

Experimenting small scale

A lot of people take one look at my muffins and go - who'll share - I'll go halves! So last night I bought some petit four cases and decided to downsize and make a batch of bitesized mini-muffins. Of course I had no idea how long to cook them, so it was a bit of trial and error, but they tasted fine when I took them to share with friends later. 

I opted for banana and chocolate chip and made up the usual recipe, then, instead of dividing into 12, I had to lay out about 75 paper cases into baking trays with nothing but each other to hold their shape, so some of them went a bit lop-sided!

In a large bowl mix together:

375g self  raising flour

220g caster sugar

In a small bowl mix together:

90g melted butter

half cup sour cream

quarter cup milk

2 large eggs

Mix the wet into the dry ingredients

then stir in:

one mashed banana (about half cup in total)

100g milk chocolate chips (about half cup in total)

Divide between zillions of petit four cases laid out in a baking tray (with sides to hold them up)

Bake on Gas 6 for 12 mins (approx) til they bounce back when you press lightly with a finger.

Leave on a wire rack to cool

Banana and Honey Muffins

Well something weird has just happened to my muffins - they look more like Yorkshire Puddings, I presume the problem has arisen because the mixture was quite wet, and I left them to stand before putting them in the oven, while I waited for the previous batch to cook! Normally once the eggs are added you need to get them into the oven quite quickly because of some scientific reason that I do not understand, but now believe entirely. Maybe the eggs prefer to be turned into Yorkshire Pudding rather than Muffins!

Any way here is the recipe for the muffin on the right - the one with the nose:

In a large bowl mix together:

375g self raising flour

220g caster sugar 

In a small bowl mix together:
90g melted butter (45 seconds in the microwave should do it!)

half a cup of sour cream

quarter cup of milk

2 large eggs

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones

Add two thirds cup of mashed bananas
one third cup of honey 

 

Divid between 12 muffin cases 
Bake Gas 5/6 
20 - 25 mins
leave to cool on a wire tray

Oat and Banana COOKIES - yes cookies!

Finally, my kids will say, she baked something other than muffins!!
I have rarely ever baked cookies, but I was standing in the kitchen making a picnic (to celebrate making a start on Holly and Tim's new house today), when I saw two less than appetizing bananas lurking in the fruit bowl. I already have enough muffins, so for once I dug out a cook book and found a recipe to use them up. They took no time at all, and being as they were so successful, I thought I'd share the recipe with you all here. It's from an 'Australian's women's weekly' cookbook, called 'Biscuits and Slices', but naturally, I didn't have all the right ingredients, so I have adapted it.
Here's what I did:

In a large bowl
sift in 1and a half cups of plain flour
with half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.
add 1 cup of oats
and half a cup of demerera sugar
and mix together.
Stir in 1 cup of mashed banana (make sure it gets through all the mixture and doesn't just clog into one place!)

In a small bowl mix together
125g melted butter
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
and 1 lightly beaten egg.

Add the wet to the dry and mix together.

Use a spoon (I tried to mould them in my hands, like the meatballs I made last night - but this instantly proved to be a moment of madness, which took some cleaning up!!) to dollop them onto a lightly greased baking tray. leaving 4cm between each one.

Bake on Gas 5 for 12 mins.

Don't move them immediately, but after a few minutes move them from the tray to a cooling rack. If you move them too quickly they'll fall apart.The book said it would make about 45. I made 16!! Not sure how tiny theirs were, but I got about 9 on a baking tray and did the baking in 2 batches so that I could use the middle of the oven each time.
What a shame, they didn't all fit in the tin - I suppose I'd better eat it, it would seem silly to make more washing up and find a bigger tin :)

Banoffi Almond Muffins

Today we were invited to taste Stu's home made garden pizza oven. Unfortunately, despite looking spectacular, it wouldn't heat up enough, so we ended up eating indoors. The pizza's were still amazing - particularly the Banana Pizza he served last. It was delicious. The last time I had Banana on a Pizza was in South Africa - it was Chicken and Banana - and a very lovely combination it was too. My job was to make the muffins for desert, so I went for these. Stu requested something nutty, and I thought the banana theme should go right through the day. So here is the recipe.

Mix 375g self raising flour with
220g castor sugar in a large bowl.

In a small bowl mix 90g melted butter
with half a cup of sour cream,
quarter cup of milk,
2 large eggs

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones

Add one small mashed banana,
100g of fudge pieces,
quarter cup of crushed slice almonds and mix together.

Divide into 12 muffin cases and bake on
Gas 5/6 for
20-25 mins.

Banana and Coconut

Use up your ripe bananas in muffins. They go with most things - fudge, honey, white chocolate, but today I decided to add coconut for a change.

375g self raising flour
220g castor sugar
60g coconut
mix together in a large bowl

90g melted butter
half a cup of sour cream
quarter of a cup of milk
2 large free range eggsmix together in a small bowl

add the wet to dry, then add
one mashed up ripe banana

bake on gas 5/6 for 20/25 mins