Banana Muffins

Ingredients for making approximately 20 banana muffins are:

600 grams of hot cake mix
4 ripe to overly ripe large banana's
2 eggs
approx 70 grams of butter
appropriate amount of fresh cream to facilitate ideal mixture

In this case we are going to make approximately half the mixture first, then make and add the second half of the mixture later. We do this to make it easier to mix everything together but if you would like to start with the total ingredients then that's fine.

After thoroughly washing our hands for proper cleanliness, we first peel and place 2 ripe banana's into a large mixing bowl.

We then add a dab of fresh cream to help soften the bananas. Then with a fork or any other suitable implement, mash the bananas together with the cream.

Next we add 300 grams of hot cake mix and blend with the banana paste.

Next we add two more bananas. You can see that these bananas are slightly over ripe, ideal for muffins as they are very soft and sweet. We remove a part of a banana that has a black spot then add 2 eggs to the mix.

Then mix all the ingredients together, adding more cream to get the right wetness with the mix.

Once we have a good texture and consistency  we add another 300 grams of hot cake mix in a few stages and blend everything together.

The final ingredient we add is approximately 70 grams of butter. You can use margarine instead of butter if you prefer.

To make mixing the butter easier we first place it in a microwave oven for a few minutes to melt it into a manageable semi liquid.

A further dab or 2 of cream will allow us to get the right moisture balance.

Finally, thoroughly mix everything together.

Once you are happy with the mixture it's time to prepare the muffin holders. We are using plastic holders that we can continually reuse.

Spread the holders out, then dollop portions of the mixture into each. Be careful not to put too much mixture in each holder as the mixture will expand during baking.

With this amount of ingredients we can make around 20 medium to large muffins.

After dolloping all the mixture into the muffin holders it's time to place all the muffins on a baking tray ready to go into the oven.  20 muffins pretty well fills up 2 baking trays.

Next, place the baking trays into the oven.

Since we are using a gas oven we set the temperature to 180 degrees celcius with a bake time of 20 minutes.

If you have an electric oven you may need to set the bake time slightly longer at say 25 minutes. Also, depending on the amount of muffins you are baking will also affect bake time so it's safest to intermittently check on the baking progress until you are confident of exact baking times.

As you can see the muffins rise and expand during baking so don't overfill the holders with initial uncooked mixture.

During the baking, prepare some cooling trays or racks to put the muffins on after baking whilst they cool down enough to handle.

When the muffins are ready they are a golden brown in color and you can check whether they are sufficiently cooked on the inside by poking a skewer, either wood or metal into the muffin. If you pull the skewer out of the muffin and it has mixture attached to it then the muffin isn't properly cooked through and requires more bake time. If the skewer comes out clean then the muffin is ready.

When the muffins are ready, take out of the oven and baking tray with a pair of tongs etc and place on the cooling trays or racks.

When they have cooled down sufficiently to handle, take out of their holders. Or, simply eat whilst they are still in their holders.

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