Banana pecan muffins

Sometime back in 2nd year uni, I developed a love for banana bread.  I used to consider things like carrot cake, banana bread, pumpkin bread, zucchini muffins a bit strange -- I was so used to the usual chocolate chip / vanilla cupcakes.  But through a chance stumble at one of the campus centre shops, I was hooked onto it.  The ones that they sold were moist, full of banana flavour and light - essentially the perfect after uni snack.  Without an oven, the only way I could get my hands onto them was the store bought kind.  It was $2.20 that I was willing to part with.  Then when I got an oven, Cyclone Larry hit Queensland's north coast and banana prices went shooting up the roof - paying $12 / kg for bananas didn't seem to sink in that well.  When it finally came back down to $3 / kg, I went about searching for the banana bread recipe.

And I have found it.  The recipe from Simply Recipes I've made it again and again, without fail.  It creates a banana bread that's just the right texture, and is full of banana flavour without using too many bananas.  There's hardly any sugar, and it's so versatile that you can add other things -- nuts, coconut, chocolate chips, more fruit to it.  It's really just perfect.  This time I made them into cupcakes, added some pecans to it and popped a pecan on top for decoration.

Banana Pecan Muffins

Makes 12



Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas (skins brown and banana feels mushy), smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup caster sugar (use more sugar if your bananas are less ripe)
  
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup of toasted pecans

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
   
2. Mix butter with mushed bananas in large bowl.  Mix in sugar, egg and vanilla.
3. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.
4. Add the flour and pecans (if using).  Mix.
5. Pour mixture into greased muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes (until cooked with skewer test).
6. Cool on rack, remove from pan and serve with honey and ricotta or butter.

If you want to make it into a loaf, just put it in a greased loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes (in my pan, it takes about 40) - cool on a rack and serve.  Try it with some ricotto and honey -- it is seriously the bomb!