Banana Chocolate Muffins

Banana bread rocks, and I turned this into a muffin! When Small World first opened, I made these muffins with roasted walnuts. They always sold out. Then Francis arrived. A spicy, colourful character from Chicago, she frequented the café in her lust for good food. Francis loved everything, but she insisted I made this muffin with chocolate instead of walnuts. I argued the case for walnuts but, after a couple of days of her pleading, I finally gave in. She was thrilled with the result (her creation), the customers loved her enthusiasm and, by popular demand, the banana chocolate muffin was born. It’s stayed with us for the last 15 years.

Play around with the recipe: try walnuts, chocolate, cinnamon, cardamom or combos. Use the very ripest bananas you can find–those that are well-yellowed or, better still, starting to blacken–as these have the best flavour.

Ingredients

400 g (14 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

125 g (4 ½ oz) caster (superfine) sugar

½ teaspoon fine salt

4 large ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs, lightly beaten

200 g (7 oz) butter, melted

150 g (5 ½ oz) chocolate chips

Optional

75 g (2 ½ oz) walnuts, in pieces (and reduce chocolate chips to 75 g/2 ½ oz)

1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom or ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and salt. In another large bowl, whisk together the bananas, eggs and melted butter. Gently fold the flour into the banana mixture, and add the chocolate (and nuts and/or cinnamon or cardamom, if using).

Arrange paper cups in a muffin tin, and spoon in the batter until a centimetre from the top. Bake large muffins for 30 minutes and smaller ones 20-25 minutes. The muffins are ready when you press the top of one and it bounces back slightly. If still gooey, bake 5 minutes longer. Don’t over-bake, as they will sit in their own heat and continue to cook after you take them out of the oven. Leave to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes.