It is common knowledge that deadlines bring out the best in creative types. I have a dissertation chapter due next week…

Voila! Perfectly healthy bananana muffins

I continuously modify recipes with gusto, and even after writing this one here I shall improvise away. But if I find myself making it the same way often enough then it should be worth writing down. I know there are many recipes out there, but if it is a healthy muffin you are going for and not a piece of cake then this is the way to go. However, making them IS a piece of cake.

1. Mix all the wet ingredients together first:

• 3-5 old spotted soft smelly bananas, mashed  (A note: for some of you this may be easy, personally I don’t often buy bananas because of the food miles etc. and furthermore only start to consider eating a banana once there are a few spots on it. So when I’m lucky enough to get a banana going genuinely BAD then I will pop it in the freezer and when enough of them accumulate to make banana bread I defrost them all. Other people have more discerning banana tastes and will pawn off their brown bananas on me, to which I am very grateful and without which this recipe could never have been perfected. And it is perfect. Further other people tell me that it is possible to buy brown bananas cheaply at their grocer’s, but this is sadly not the case here in my corner of Hyde Park)
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter and  2 T vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, but honestly I always use 3/4 cup real milk curdled with 1 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 egg

2. Add in the dry ingredients in the order listed below, then gently stir it all up:

• 1 cup all-purpose white flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (the nicer the flour, the better this muffin will taste. Hint: stoneground, wholemeal, fresh milled, local organic blah blah are good indications here)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 t baking power
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I happened to use Ghiradelli  60% cacao bittersweet chocolate)

Spoon into muffin papers, filling the cups generously. Sprinkle with demerara  sugar- you know, the chunky crystals- and bake at 375 til the tops are golden brown. I leave the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, and then on the counter for another ten minutes before eating. Most people, however, don’t like to wait that long. Enjoy.

Baked with advice from here and you know what- these muffins would taste really lovely with toasted pecans or walnuts…