These muffins were quite a spontaneous affair. Two days ago, I saw a few bananas going spotty on our dining table and I thought “aha. Banana muffins this weekend”. Just before baking these yesterday, it struck me that simple bananas muffins would be a bit plain, so I decided to toss in a surprise peanut butter centre. Then just as I was going to top them with dark chocolate, I remembered I had some white chocolate leftover from last week’s Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake. The contrast of the dark chocolate with the white chocolate swirls would be much prettier to look at, I decided.
So even if these muffins were sort of cobbled together, they certainly don’t taste like that! They are delicious. The banana muffin is soft and moist, not at all tough or dry. It reminds of a really good banana bread. I’m so glad I added the peanut butter centre as well. I was worried that it might melt during the baking and make the muffins really greasy. My fears were ungrounded. Not only did it keep it’s shape, but it has the same texture and taste as the inside of a Reese’s peanut butter cup.
The chocolate on top is optional. I really like it for the visual effect and I just generally love chocolate. A few of my flatmates thought that it was a bit distracting and competed too much with the banana and peanut butter flavours. I leave it up to you. Feel free to leave it out – you’ll be left with a scrumptious peanut butter banana muffin. Or if you want to include it, it will give your muffins a bit of grown-up class – nothing says sophistication like 70% dark chocolate.
Happy baking!
Peanut Butter Surprise Banana Muffins
Peanut Butter Truffles
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup/125g crunchy peanut butter
- 1/3 cup/ 75g unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/3 cup/ 165g icing sugar, sifted
- 1/2 cup/45g digestive biscuit/graham cracker crumbs
Instructions:
- Stir together all the ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl until it forms a thick, homogenous mixture.
- Shape into 1″ balls and chill in the freezer whilst you prepare the muffin batter.
- Makes around 20 balls, which is much more than I was expecting – either halve the recipe or just eat the extras!
Banana Muffins:
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup/188g plain or all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 brown spotty bananas, mashed
- 3/4 cup/150g white sugar
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1/3 cup/75g butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375F/180C. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners or grease the insides of the tin.
- Sift together in a medium sized mixing bowl the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- By hand, whisk together the mashed bananas, white sugar, egg, butter and vanilla until well combined.
- Add the flour mixture and gently fold together until just mixed. This should take around 20 turns of the spatula. Do not over mix or the muffins will turn out tough and dry.
- Add about a spoonful and a half of batter to each muffin cup. Place a chilled peanut butter truffle in the centre of each muffin cup and cover with another spoonful of batter.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean. Cool completely before covering with chocolate (instructions below).
Chocolate Topping
Ingredients:
- 100g dark chocolate (50%-70%)
- 50g white chocolate
- Cling film/plastic wrap.
Instructions:
- Melt the dark and white chocolates either in the microwave or in a bain marie. Choose small, relatively deep bowls.
- Place a sheet of cling film or tin foil or baking paper underneath the cooling rack to collect any chocolate that drips off the muffins.
- Dip each muffin in the dark chocolate, and turn it carefully to ensure the whole surface is covered. Place back on a cooling rack.
- Drizzle each muffin with the white chocolate, crisscrossing across the top of each muffin.
- Let chocolate set completely before eating.
