Banoffee Muffins

Spotty bananas

Mash with a potato masher

The wet and dry ingredients

The muffin mixture

Sprinkle with a little more fudge

Cooling

Lumpy, bumpy, Scrummy muffins

Great walks need great snacks

Hot Mango cooling off with the boot lid open and a long drink

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I usually have spotty bananas lurking in my fruit bowl.  As a consequence, I make a fair few banana recipes. Bananas are a brilliant energy source and packed full of potassium. This makes them a brilliant exercise fuel. As you can see from the photos above, I have a bit of a glut of spotty bananas this week!

I made these muffins for breakfast today. I am most definitely not a morning person. I am positively sloth like until I have had 2 cups of tea. I am telling you this as it illustrates exactly how quick and easy these muffins are to make. My son had one fresh out of the oven, for breakfast. “You Gave Your Child Cake for Breakfast?” I hear the parent bashers screech, waving their guilt batons in my direction. Well, from a nutritional perspective, these muffins are actually not as bad a breakfast as it might seem. I have already extolled the virtues of bananas and the muffins are probably lower in sugar than most children’s commercial cereals. Anyway, he is a Skinny Minny and went to school with a smile on his face so I was a happy Mummy.

Please remember to use spotty bananas. If they are not extra ripe they won’t give the right flavour or texture.

This recipe is adapted from one originally printed in Delicious magazine. I am sorry, I cannot tell you which year/ month as I have made this off by heart for a good few years.

This recipe makes 12 medium sized muffins.

NOTE: Please be extra careful if you are serving these warm to children. The fudge pieces are extremely hot when they first come out of the oven.

Ingredients

3 large, very ripe bananas

1 large egg

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil

0.5 tsp vanilla extract

250 g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

125 g golden caster sugar

100g vanilla fudge chunks/ vanilla fudge chopped into small pieces

Tray

A 12 hole muffin tin/ stoneware, lined with muffin cases

Oven

Pre-heat the oven to 180C (Fan 160C)/ Gas Mark 4

Method

1. Mash the bananas with a potato masher until they are fairly smooth. Add the egg, vanilla extract, oil and milk and stir well with a fork.

2. In a second bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and most of the fudge pieces.

3. Pour the dry ingredients on to the wet and stir lightly with a spatula. Use the minimum amount of stirring and folding to incorporate the flour. You are not aiming for a smooth mixture. Over- stirring at this stage will result in tough muffins.

4. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and sprinkle on the remaining fudge- only 3 or 4 tiny pieces per muffin or it will run off the tops and make a mess of your muffin tray.

5. Bake in the centre of the oven for 20- 25 minutes until well risen and golden brown.