Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Banana-Choco Muffins

By Crivenica

I was chatting with my sister, Lu, the other day and it made me think about sharing a little habit that David and I have.

Lu: So what are you doing?
Me: Oh, just cleaned up my freezer to make room for mom’s challah bread David brought from Jakarta. And I found these frozen bananas, so I think I’ll make some banana muffins today.
Lu: Frozen bananas? Why would you freeze bananas?
Me: They’re old bananas that we didn’t get to eat so instead of dumping them in the trash, David and I just throw them into the freezer until we feel like doing something with them.
Lu: Oh. I've never thought to freeze bananas.


It really is a simple habit that came out from not wanting to waste food. If Lu never thought to do that, I thought maybe many people didn’t think to do that, either. It’s a great way to keep an ingredient handy for a loaf of banana bread or in my case that day, Banana-Choco Muffins. All you have to do is to let the banana thaw and you can be munching on fresh-baked goods in a couple of hours.

Here’s a simple Banana-Choco Muffins recipe which I have modified from Better Homes And Gardens New Cook Book's Banana Bread recipe:

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cups mashed medium bananas
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil

2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel or vanilla extract (optional)
1 1/2 cups chopped semi-sweet chocolate or chocolate chips

Grease the bottom and sides of a muffin pan or muffin tins. You can also use individual muffin baking paper liners. Set aside. Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and add 1/4 tsp of salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Set aside.

In another bowl combined the wet ingredients and if you’d like add the lemon peel or vanilla extract. I usually use vanilla and there are times when I use both. I love smelling the fragrance as the muffins bake. Add the wet ingredient mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. Don’t over stir, the batter should be lumpy. Fold in the chopped chocolate. Some people also add 1/2-3/4 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans, but I’d like to focus on the banana and chocolate this time.

L: Mixed wet ingredients R: Mixed dry ingredients

Mixed batter - Fold in the chocolate
Spoon batter into the prepared pans. Bake in a 350º F/180º C/ oven gas knob 3 for 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then you can remove the individual muffins from pan and cool on rack. Make 16 medium size muffins.






Enjoy!

9 comments:

  1. Love to try the receipe Ri, but this (sorry :D) bloody load sheding makes my mood off all the time

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just noticed this on your FB account, sitting next to a bunch of bananas I don't quite fancy eating.

    Soooo am going to give this a go! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Maria: Your oven is electric? You should try this. I think you'll like it a lot!

    @Matthew: So did you bake some? I want proof!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love Love LOVE banana chocolate muffins! They are so dangerous. Lu just told me after your post on the muffins, she wants to make some. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll probably have time to do it on weekend :) Just trying to work out UK measurements for 'cups' - seems to differ depending on liquid or powder, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I find using cups measurement to be easier. Go buy a set. I've seen Nigella Lawson use them for her recipes, so I know you have them in UK. If not, check this page http://allrecipes.com//HowTo/cup-to-gram-conversions/Detail.aspx - The grams would be different for flour, sugar, butter and liquid because they have different weight, so the cups to grams conversion in this page will help!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, those look so good, Ri, will have to try to make them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Make them, Jo! They're so easy and yummy. Great for breakfast or just a pick-me-up in the afternoon. Besides we always have some bananas that we don't eat, right?

    ReplyDelete
  9. do u have a recipe to make kalbi?

    ReplyDelete