Banana-Nutella Muffins

Once again I mysteriously came across an appealing recipe, while browsing for something completely different.

The combination of banana and Nutella is always a winning one, I've previously done - peeled and wrapped in aluminium foil together with generous dollops of Nutella.

So I had great hopes for these and set about to convert the measurements to metric. As I write this, I realise that I used baking powder instead of bicarbonate of soda (listed as "baking soda" in the original recipe). Dang!

Ingredient
Makes 12
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled (about 100 g)
4.75 dl plain flour
1.8 dl granulated sugar
0.75 tsp bicarbonate of soda
0.5 tsp salt
3.5 dl very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
0.6 dl plain yoghurt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
0.6 dl chopped and toasted hazelnuts
12 tsp Nutella

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees for fan assisted) and line a muffin tin with paper cases. Gently melt the butter, removing from the heat before all of it has melted, that way it will cool quicker.
2. Mix together the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, yoghurt, eggs and vanilla extract.
   
4. Quickly fold in the wet mixture into the dry mixture and also add the hazelnuts.
5. Divide up the batter between the cases, add a tsp of Nutella to each and swirl around with a toothpick. The Nutella must be at room temperature and maybe even warmed up for a few seconds in a microwave, to make swirling easier.
   
6. Bake for about 25 - 35 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and are baked through. Use a toothpick to test, it should come out clean.
   
7. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

As the muffins were baking, they smelt so wonderful, I opened the kitchen door and let the smells spread out through the house. Once they were ready and out of the oven, I noticed that they were heavier than expected, as I moved them from the muffin tin to the cooling rack. And as tempting as it was, I managed to resist trying one, but waited for Lundulph to come home, which was very late.

And then disappointment - the muffins were heavy and didn't feel spongy. They tasted nice, but were very dense, not at all what I expected. Lundulph suggested having them with custard and I think perhaps a few seconds in the microwave might soften them up a bit.

Thus we have 10 more muffins to get through, I've frozen most of them and perhaps I'll give this recipe another try, with bicarbonate of soda and I might change the amounts as well. I realise why there is yoghurt on the ingredients list, it is moist and acidic and activates the bicarbonate, so that it bubbles up and is the reason why the recipe of sponge cake without eggs. works. Oh well, never mind...