Sunday 17th May 2020
Lockdown week 8. Maybe. I’m no longer sure which week of this lockdown it is anymore.
Anyway, one of the big things that everyone has been doing has been baking. Which is absolutely great, even if it has led to some ingredients occasionally being hard to come by.
One of the more popular bakes of lockdown is banana bread. Banana bread is everywhere, and I have been seeing it nearly everyday in some form on my social media feeds. Therefore, I thought I would chime in with my own version of this lockdown essential bake.
I actually love banana bread, and have done for years, so I have really been enjoying being able to make these muffins every couple of weeks at the moment. It is probably my favourite part of lockdown at the moment, which isn’t hard at the moment when there isn’t much else to do except work and revise for my upcoming end of year exams.
This recipe is actually an old family recipe and has been quite popular over the years in our household. Usually this is baked in a loaf tin, but I have discovered that I can be a little impatient and so cannot wait the 50 minutes that it takes to bake in the oven if I make it as a loaf.
As a result, the muffins are much quicker to cook, taking only 15 minutes in the oven, meaning that these muffins take an absolute maximum of 30 minutes to make, start to finish. Also, they are easier to freeze as muffins, which when there are only 2 of you in a house, makes it much easier as then you don’t sit there eating 4 muffins in a single day. Yes, I have indeed done that and no, I do not have any regrets about that. Freezing them also means that you have fresh muffins at your disposal and they only take 5 minutes in the microwave on a defrost option before you have warm, gooey banana and chocolate muffins for breakfast.
I hope you are all staying safe during this time and trying to make the best of this time! If you make any of my bakes during lockdown then please tag them with #sarahjaneskitchen on any social media platform as I love seeing other people’s bakes!
Makes 12 Muffins
Ingredients:
4 Ripe Bananas, Mashed
80g Butter
110g Caster Sugar
225g Self Raising Flour
1 Egg
125g Milk Chocolate Chunks
1Tsp Vanilla Extract
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 170°C fan and line a muffin tin with cases
- Cream the butter and the sugar together until it is light and fluffy and then beat in the egg and the vanilla extract
- Sift in the flour and gently fold it in, until most of the flour has been incorporated
- Add in the mashed banana and chocolate chunks and mix them into the cake mix, until everything is fully incorporated
- Spoon the cake mixture into the muffin cases and then bake in the oven for 15 minutes, until the cakes are golden brown and a skewer comes out of the cake clean.
