Banana and Walnut Muffin

Whenever my parents-in-law visit us or when we go  back to Kuantan, I will make some time and effort to bake a cake or muffins for them.  I’m not much of a baking person (more of a cooking person), but I do it to show our love through food.  I guess it’s the typical Chinese mentality of expressing affections through food instead of words though we do that as well

This time, I made Banana and Walnut Muffin.  A note of advice; since bananas ripen and go bad pretty quickly, the muffins should be stored in the refrigerator if not immediately consumed.  I learned this the hard way when the muffins became stale after only 2 days of baking and regretfully had to dispose most of them (sob sob). 

For those who want to flex their baking fingers at making these goodies, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

60g butter, melted

2 eggs, lightly beaten (Tip: ensure that eggs are at room temperature before using) 

250ml UHT milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

250g self-raising flour, sifted

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, sifted together with flour

125g walnuts, chopped

55g castor sugar

2 large ripe bananas, mashed

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 190 degree Celcius.  Lightly grease a muffin pan (Note: I used silicon cake cups to contain the batter instead of greasing the pan.  The cups worked like a wonder as the baked muffins slided out smoothly from the cases; very useful baking implements indeed.  The silicon cups can be washed and reused.)

2) Combine melted butter, milk, beaten eggs, and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl.

3) Gradually add and mix sifted flour and bicarbonate of soda into combined ingredients.

4) Stir in chopped walnuts and sugar.  Mix evenly.

5) Pour in mashed bananas and mix (Note: do not overmix)

7) Remove and leave on wire rack to cool down.  Store in an air-tight container.

The muffins will make a great breakfast, afternoon tea and as a snack.