A little bit of naughty, a little bit of nice
There’s no hiding the fact that I love my muffins - little handheld delights that can hold together any marvellous collection of goodies from plump juicy berries to nuts, vegetables and sweets!
Anything baked good that truly versatile gets two thumbs up from me - and I’ve been making them so long now that the days of muffin fear (back when I started this blog) seem so long ago. However, there is one thing to be said about my muffin choices - I usually prefer ones that are light and fluffy and not sweet, the sort of snack you could eat on the run as a quick breakfast rather than as the dessert at the end of a meal. In need of a bit of a change, my eyes sparkled when I discovered these choc chip & banana muffins in Nigella Lawson’s latest book, Nigella Express.
Me being me, I can rarely let well enough be and after reading through the recipe, made a few changes that I thought would assist me in getting the best results possible. Now, not having tried the original recipe, I can’t say by how much these differ, but I tell ya that my family and I are absolutely sold on my variations - these were made yesterday and are already almost all gone!! And with the goodness of the bananas and the little bit of wickedness from the chocolate and pearl sugar, I can’t say that I blame them 
Choc chip & banana muffins
(Recipe adapted Nigella Express)
Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups all-purpose/plain flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (3 ripe bananas)
1 cup milk/dark choc chips
1/3 cup pearl sugar
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
2. Beat together the oil and eggs in a small bowl, then whisk in the mashed bananas and set aside.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda, then stir in the sugar and choc chips till thoroughly mixed. Using a large metal spoon, carefully fold together the wet and dry mixtures in as lightly as possible (overmixing will make these tough).
4. Divide mixture into the paper liners, sprinkle the top with a little pearl sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes, or till they begin to brown on top and a wooden skewer inserted into them comes out with moist (not wet) crumbs clinging to it.
Be warned - if a skewer comes out dry, they’ve been overbaked and will be quite dry, but can still be enjoyed by microwaving for a minute to help soften them up again.
5. Enjoy warm, with a mug of tea or a hot chocolate if you want to be really indulgent 
Technorati Tags: baking, recipes, muffins, bananas, chocolate
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
omg those looook soooo good. i am in real dire need of a nice muffin/cake/cookie diet.
right now i am on stupid Weight watchers, so this post is killing me
I would take Dani’s comment even further and say, it is meant to be.
Can anyone shed some light on pearl sugar?
Love your blog, Kitchen Wench!!
Hello Ellie,
I’m the one with oven troubles. Thankfully, the green tea cookies turn out really well - even my young kiddies like them despite the bitterness of the tea! By the way, where did you get your awesome muffin papers and where can you buy pearl sugar?
my eyes didn’t sparkle when i saw those pictures…they glazed over with glee. talk about your fabulous muffins!
I bake a similar muffin with pecans, cacao nibs and bananas. Never seen pearl sugar, but it sounds intriguing.
I loove your muffin pictures! I am a huge fan of muffins, but I have to admit, I tend to prefer mine sweet…sometimes I do make the low-in-sugar kind, but that’s just when I don’t let my sweet tooth get the best of me :D. Great recipe, bananas and chocolate work great together.
mmmmm. how yummy does that look! bananas and choc is an awesome combo. also i really should get some pearl sugar. they look great on anything.
This has become one of my favorite blogs! Don’t know what I didn’t find it earlier! There is nothing on your blog that I don’t want to make!
I hope these taste and delicious as they look! I can’t wait to make them!
x
I am going to try making these and I am wondering if I can substitute the pearl sugar with something else. Have you tried ommitting the pearl sugar or adding more sugar to the recipe instead of the pearl sugar.
A little bit naughty, a little bit nice, that is so Nigella, though I reckon you run rings around her baking wise - your voloptuous variation is a winner.
Sharon - LOL! Trust me, it’s tough resisting from them
Christey - Ooer, maybe as a reward when you get through the program then?
Dani - This is true
Cath - Ta hon pearl sugar are just big white sugar crystals…well, not solid crystals as they’re quite light and airy, if your local baking goods store doesn’t have them, you can buy it on Amazon or substitute with demerera or coffee sugar
Lisa - I’ll reserve a table for you at the party
Jen - Glad the kiddies liked the cookies I buy all my baking supplies from three stores in particular, one is a local baking supplies store, another one is called CakeDeco and the other is the David Jones food hall
Grace - High praise indeed! ta!
Kat - It’s just another kind of sugar, great for decorating
Peabody - Hope you’re not complaining
Kevin - Thanks
Sophie - Thanks hon
Diva - Aww, ta babe And yup, it’s great for decorating!
Marc - Thanks
Shellie - Aww, thanks hon
Yankeeumma2kimchilovers - Definitely, they just provide a little sweetness and crunch, so just substituting them with a large grain sugar like demerera or coffee sugar should be fine
Neil - Now that’s the best compliment ever, how did you know I want to be Australia’s answer to her?
I’m with you, breakfast muffins over dessert muffins. Can’t hurt to add a little naughty to the nice, though
Oh how I love a good muffin recipe! I’ve never thought to bake muffins in those little paper cup thingies.
I just made these muffins today. They were awsome. I am not too big on super sweet cakes and muffins. These were just perfect. I have two little kids so we always have bananas going brown on our counter. I used to make banana bread but the kids prefered this over banana bread.
I am going to check out Nigella’s cookbook from the library this week.
BTW, any good korean food recipe’s you would like to share with us? I am looking for a good seaweed salad recipe.
Julia - In moderation
Ann - Awww, thank you
RecipeGirl - I hate buttering and flouring moulds so paper liners are the way to go for me!
YK2 - I’m so glad to hear that your kids liked them I don’t have a Korean seaweed salad recipe, but a bastardized/Koreanized Japanese one that’s on the list to go up
Hi Ellie,
I love your blog…everything looks so delicious. can you please tell me where you got these muffin cups from? I’ve been looking everywhere in Melbourne for them.
Thanks,
Abby
Oh gosh, Ellie!! This is SO freakin’ decadent!! Here I thot why not use up those nice shade of brown bananas and I get this in return! oolala, I liiiike…
@ Abby: Abby, the place to look is CakeDeco on Flinders St - tell Phillip you found out about the store on this blog and he’ll give you a 10% discount
@ john gilbert: Thanks John
@ Gina B: Thanks Gina
Your muffins are ridiculously cute. Baking them in paper liners is a great idea, although I would probably keep saying "just one more. it’s so small!" and eat them all.