RECIPE: Banana and peanut butter muffins with chocolate chips and hazelnuts

Do you ever get a sudden urge to bake something specific? I mean a desire that springs up out of nowhere, for something really random? Well I did. And said urge was for peanut buttery/bananary/chocolatey/hazelnutty muffins. So that is exactly what I baked.

I adore the texture of muffins, particularly the muffin top - (*penny drops*) yes that's where the name comes from - and these are deliciously moist. This is mainly down to all the fabulous mashed banana in the recipe, which also means there's no need for any butter. Hoorah! *dieters of the world rejoice* I also think chopped nuts work wonderfully in muffins to add a bit of crunch.

If you ever find yourself with over-ripe bananas, this is a great way to use them up (or you could try my banana blueberry pancakes, banana pecan muffins, basic banana birthday cake or banoffee cake - if you hadn't noticed, I like to use bananas in my baking.)

Sure, there are quite a few flavours going on here, but I think they all work perfectly together, and am a sucker for a peanut butter and banana combo. I find it interesting that you very rarely see muffins like this here in the UK, either in cafés or shops, but imagine they're more commonplace in the homeland of peanut butter, the ole U S of A.

This is an easy peasy quick recipe, and makes (somewhat awkwardly, I'll admit) 13 big muffins. They're especially delicious warm, and make a perfect afternoon tea accompaniment or breakfast treat. I know what I'm having tomorrow morning, that's for sure...


Ingredients

2.5 very ripe large bananas (or 3 small ones), mashed
125ml olive or sunflower oil
2 eggs
250g plain flour
100g caster sugar
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
100g peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
50g chocolate chips (I used dark but any kind will do)
50g shelled blanched hazelnuts, chopped into rough halves

How I chopped my hazelnuts

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line a muffin tin with paper cases.

2. Pour the oil into a jug and beat in the eggs until smooth. Measure out the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a large bowl, stir together and then mix in the wet mixture followed by the mashed bananas. Next stir in the peanut butter until no streaks of it remain and fold in the chocolate chips and hazelnuts.

The egg mix, dry mix and mashed bananas before being combined

3. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases until each one is about 2/3 full - don't go any higher than about 1cm from the top as these babies rise a lot in the oven - and bake for 20 minutes. When ready, they should be golden on top, springy to the touch and a wire inserted into the middle should come out clean. Remove from the oven and leave them in the tin for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely... Or for as long as you (and everyone else) can resist the delicious smell!