Banana, Chocolate & Fudge Muffins

Ingredients

• 3 very ripe banana’s
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 250g flour
• 100g caster sugar
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½  a chocolate bar approximately 50g
• 25g fudge

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/gas mark 6 and prepare you muffin cases.

Mash the bananas and set aside for a moment.

Pour the oil into a jug and beat in the eggs.

Put the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a large bowl and mix in the beaten egg and oil mixture, followed by the mashed bananas.

Fold in the chocolate & fudge then place equal quantities in the prepared muffin cases.

Bake for 15-20 mins or until golden brown, then enjoy!!!!! 

Happy Easter!!

Hi,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend!!!!

Bank Holiday Monday is always such a lazy day for me, trying to recuperate from all the festivities that might have taken place over the Easter weekend. So I thought to myself, I am going to make some brownies and have it with ice-cream!! Really… can you think of a better way to round off the festivities and get ready for the week ahead!!! I can’t!

I must admit I did cheat a bit in that I used Betty Crocker’s brownie mix and didn’t make them from scratch, but like I said earlier I was having such a lazy day!!!

Either way the end result was fantastic.

I have also posted a simple recipe that you can use to make the brownies from scratch if you wish to go down that route.

Enjoy!!

A Recipe from Scratch

Ingredients

Makes nine 2 1/2-inch squares

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into large pieces
• 6 ounces (170g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, sifted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment, leaving a slight overhang on all sides. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, and whisk in sugar. Whisk in eggs, 1 at a time, until combined. Whisk in cocoa and salt. Fold in flour until combined.
2. Pour batter into pan. Bake until set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan, about 15 minutes. Lift brownies from pan using parchment. Remove parchment, and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely. Cut into 9 squares.

Source

Coconut Granita

Ingredients

•   200ml coconut cream
•  ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Pour the coconut cream into a small container, then add the vanilla extract and stir well.

In a separate cup add the brown sugar and dissolve in warm water, then pour into the coconut cream mixture.

Pour the mixture into a freezer box, cover and freeze. Stir with a fork every 30 minutes during freezing to break up ice crystals and create a better texture. Keep in the freezer until you are ready to serve, then roughly fork to break up the ice crystals.

Serves 2

*Chef's Notes*

Definition:- Granita (in Italian also granita siciliana) is a semi-frozen dessert of sugar, water, and flavorings originally from Sicily, although available all over Italy. 

Source

This recipe came about over the weekend using the ingredients we could find in my friend’s house!!

The end result was quite nice but could use one or two adjustments. What I would suggest to give this recipe more of an edge is to try coconut water instead of coconut cream.

Another thing you could try if you used the coconut cream is yogurt or vanilla ice-cream so soften the edge on the flavor once it freezes. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe and please feel free to let me know your thoughts or comments on the above.