Banana Walnut muffins….

 I am a big fan of freshly baked items. Be it bread or muffins or cookies or cakes. Once I landed at Delhi, I missed the bakeries of Bangalore. And most of the muffins I got from various places in Delhi were not as fresh as I hoped they’d be. So I did the best thing I could, got myself an oven and started baking myself.

This is one of the favourites and would love to share it here:

One of the first things I did once I started baking was try various recipes for banana walnut muffins. The best recipe I got for the same was from simplyrecipes.com (Click on the link to see the original recipe). I have been wanting to post this recipe for a long time, but was unable to for some reason or the other. This weekend, I had 4 people ask for the recipe, and decided it was time that this recipe enters cyberspace 🙂

I modified the recipe a bit, basically because I was using a tray that makes 6 large muffins, and over the years that I have been baking, I have refined the recipe to make it more fun and unique.

The ingredients are simple and are given below:

Wet Mix –

1-2 ripe (over-ripe) bananas

½ cup butter (melted)

¾ cup sugar ( I prefer Brown sugar)

1 egg (beaten)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

½ cup chopped walnuts ( actually any nuts will do)

Pinch of salt

Dry Mix –

1 cup all purpose flour (ordinary maida)

1 teaspoon baking powder

The way I go about it is simple. Set the oven up at 180 degrees Celsius (pre-heat), and get the muffin tray ready, by layering it with the paper cups.

Dice the bananas (small bits, but don’t mash, this is Important). Melt the butter, mix the diced bananas, butter, sugar, vanilla, coffee powder, salt and egg together. Sift the flour and baking powder separately onto a plate. Fold the wet and dry ingredients together. Fill the muffin cups till they are half full, and bake them for about 25 mins, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out almost dry.

Word  of caution, do not mix (fold) the wet and dry ingredients and let them stand. They have to be transferred into the cups and baked immediately. I try and do it within 10-15 seconds.

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Food for the Soul (and the Stomach).”