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 overb ~aked 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

[tags]baking, recipes, muffins, bananas, chocolate[/tags]

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