Before the summer holiday finishes, my godson came over and we made pasta and Swiss roll, on two separate occasions. I have yet to get over the fact that he doesn’t like potatoes! I was hoping he would venture out to make some potato gnocchi but no, wheat based meals please. The Swiss roll was a far more enjoyable success, so there you go. He has already booked a session for an apple crumble AND a cake for his birthday later in the autumn. This little man has a serious sweet tooth and he told me in a grand speech that “sugar is the enemy”. He is going from 6 to 60.
I haven’t done much baking for a good few months partly because we had a significant building project here. Since it completed I was excited to test out the ovens. One my godson used for his Swiss roll and the other for me, having to use up a few over ripe bananas, I made some banana and walnut muffins and shared them among family and friends. This time I tweaked the spices and liquid in the recipe, rather than using milk or yoghurt, I used some plain natural kefir. The results were much lighter. I like sweet spices and like to add quite a bit in this kind of bake. Ground spices generally have a shorter shelf life than the whole ones, and for this reason I grated the nutmeg and grind the cardamom seeds to a powder (without the pods). I would recommend using dark or light brown sugar as it gives a golden hue, delicious flavour and fluffier texture.
3 large over ripe “spotty” bananas, peeled and mashed with a fork
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (about 1/3 of a whole nutmeg)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (8-10 cardamom pods, remove and discard the pods, grind the seeds)
180g plain flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
80g salted or unsalted butter, melted and cooled a little
130g dark brown sugar (light brown is also fine)
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
45g plain kefir (or yoghurt)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
75g coarsely chopped shelled walnuts
1/2 teaspoon salt
10-12 muffin cases
1) Preheat the oven to 180c, ensure the rack is in the middle level. Put the muffin cases in the tin.
2) in a large mixing bowl, place a sieve over it and sift through the flour, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Stir through the sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom.
3) Mix the egg, mashed banana, vanilla extract and kefir in a separate bowl. Now make a well in the centre of the dry mixture, add the wet ingredients into it and mix through evenly. Don’t beat it too hard or the muffins will be tough because the gluten in the flour will develop too much. Then stir through the chopped walnuts.
4) Divide the muffin mixture evenly into the muffin cakes, filling them near the top of the cases. Put them into the centre of the preheated oven. Bake for 15-18 minutes. The muffins are ready when they are well risen, golden and smelling delicious! When testing with a skewer, it should come out clean with possibly a couple of fine moist crumbs. Take them out of the oven, remove the muffins from the tin and cool on a wire rack before serving.
I don’t ice these muffins as I think there is enough sweetness. However if you prefer, you can make a simple vanilla buttercream and pipe on top. Serve these with a pot of hot beverage of your choice.
Recent Comments