Banana & Chocolate Muffins

It was a weekday evening. While I was washing the dishes right after dinner, it occurred to me that I have not prepared anything for breakfast for the next day. There were no homemade cakes or bread and I would rather stay at home than to step out of the house to get a loaf of bread from the neighbourhood bakery shop, which is just a stone's throw away. The only way out was to bake something quick and easy. I guess nothing beats a batch of muffins when you are running short of time.


I checked the ingredients I have on hand and managed to match the list with those found in this recipe for a batch of Banana & Chocolate Muffins. The recipe calls for chopped plain chocolates, I replaced them with chocolate chips as I rather save the chocolates for baking a cake or to use it to make chocolate ganache. The recipe calls for self-raising flour, and since I didn't have that, I substituted it with a mixture of plain flour, baking powder and salt.

When I was all set to begin my baking session, my younger child came to the kitchen. When he saw me getting busy with the preparation of the ingredients, as usual, he offered to help me. Unlike his elder brother, he always doesn't seem to mind dropping whatever he was doing, just so he could have some fun playing with flour, butter and eggs. I got him to mash up the bananas while I measured the other ingredients. He found immense pleasure in adding, pouring ingredients into the mixing bowl and eventually stirring them, even if he was only allowed to give a few strokes. Without fail, he asked whether he could do the final mixing of the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Since he was so enthusiastic, I told him he could do all the stirring this time. While he was half way into the mixing, I thought I should capture the moment on video. I got him to pause for a second, while I dashed off to grab my camera.

Here's a very short video clip of him mixing the muffin batter...as the batter got more and more heavy for him to stir, I took over to finish up the job. In case you ask, it was my elder boy who taught me how to use Window's Movie Maker to do the editing of the video clip. Otherwise I wouldn't even know the existence of such a software.

As you can see from the video, I stopped mixing once the flour mixture disappeared into the batter. The batter was very thick and lumpy. To get very soft and fluffy muffins, it is very important not to over stir the mixture...this is especially so for recipes when the instruction calls for mixing the wet ingredients to the dry ones.


Very soon, we were rewarded with ten sweet-smelling, beautifully domed muffins. While the muffins were cooling off, my little one kept asking when he could eat the muffin. He had earlier devoured a banana and a bar of Kit Kat while the muffins were in the oven, and yet he couldn't wait to lay his hands on the muffins. Once I gave the go ahead, he sat down alone at the dinner table and enjoyed the freshly baked muffin he made.

The muffins tasted really delicious when they were fresh out of the oven. The texture was all moist and fluffy. I cut down on the amount of sugar and the sweetness was just right. The photos of the muffins were taken a day after, I think it didn't capture the soft and fluffy crumbs that well. Nevertheless, they tasted as good when served warm. This recipe is going to be a keeper.


Banana & Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:
(makes 10 ~ 12 muffins)

275g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, about 450g
100g brown sugar (original recipe calls for 125g brown caster sugar)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
50ml semi-skimmed milk (I used low fat fresh milk)
75g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
50g chocolate chips

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180degC (350 degF). Line muffin pans with paper muffin cases.
2. Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl. Mix in the chocolate chips. Set aside.
3. Peel the bananas and mash with a fork in a bowl. Add in brown sugar, egg, milk and melted butter. Mix until well combined.
4. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. With a wooden spoon or a spatula, gently fold all the ingredients to form a wet batter. Stir gently, using only a few strokes and mix until the flour are incorporate into the batter. DO NOT Over mix. The batter should appear lumpy.
5. Spoon batter into paper muffin cases. Bake for 20mins until muffins turn golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold.

Recipe source: adapted from Good Housekeeping - Easy to Make! Cakes & Bakes.