My new BBQ arrived today – it’s a monster! Really looking forward to some serious al fresco dining this summer now.
But…..isn’t there always a but?…..there is no way I can put the thing together single handedly so a call to my lovely Daddy was made and he’s coming up soon to help me (for which you can probably read, do it for me). I thought it was only fair to make him something nice to take home with him and I know he loves these cute little banana and chocolate chip breakfast muffins. The breakfast bit comes from the fact that they have oat bran in them.
My scales need a new battery though so I was unable to weigh out the ingredients so I decided to opt for the American cup method instead.
I used little card muffin cases mainly because they are just the right size but also because I loaned out my muffin tins to somebody and can’t remember who and without a tin, paper cases fall into disastrous shapes whereas these retain their shape quite nicely just on a baking tray.
These freeze really well and if you forget to get one out to defrost the night before, they are rather good if you stick them in the microwave on defrost for a couple of minutes – they come out warm with the chocolate oozing out…..yum!
Ingredients
125g butter
1 cup plain flour
½ cup oat bran
2 tbspn baking powder
2 large bananas
1 cup chopped dates
2 tbspn water
1 cup brown sugar
1 tspn cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup chocolate chips (preferably bake stable)
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C
- Put the dates and water into a pan and bring to a simmer, cooking gently until all the water has dissolved and the dates are soft and mushy. Add a little more water if needed. Set aside to cool (you could place the bottom of the pan in cold water to speed this up).
- Cream together the butter and sugar using an electric whisk then gradually add the eggs.
- Chop the bananas then add them to the mix and whisk until smooth.
- Whisk in the cooled dates and gradually whisk in the remaining dry ingredients, chocolate chips last.
- Using an ice-cream scoop, portion the mixture into muffin cases (I got 21 small muffins out of this mixture) and bake for 18 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
