Banana muffins

If you are like me, you know that when a banana is going black it is at its most flavourful. The skin going brown with black spots on is not a sign that it is going off, but try and tell kids that. So what can you do with the bananas that they will not eat. Well today, I give you my recipe for banana muffins. You can add some chopped walnuts or pecan nuts to this if you like but I have kept this one all banana.

You will need

75g/3oz melted butter
250g/9oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
A small pinch of salt, if your butter is unsalted
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
115g/4oz caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large, ripe bananas
2 medium eggs
125ml/4fl oz milk

Start by sifting the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a bowl, add caster sugar and stir through.

Then in another bowl mash your bananas up with a fork then beat in the eggs, vanilla extract, melted butter and milk. Bo not use the butter hot, melt it and let it cool down a little first.

Now what you have is one wet bowl of ingredients and one dry. Now you have to mix the two together. The art to this is not over mixing it all, you just want it to combine together to from a rather wet lumpy paste. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture, stirring with a fork until you have the right consistency.

Place your muffin cases in a mould or muffin try and spoon in the mixture until almost full. Then place in a preheated oven set at 190c/375f and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until fully cooked.

Cool the muffins on a cooling rack for about five minutes and they are ready to eat , or cool thoroughly and keep in a air tight tine for the next two or three days. Kids might not like to eat black bananas but in this format, normally I find they are gone in just a few moments.