Sunday, December 19, 2010

Cocoa Banana Muffins

Remember Project: Cookies? It's in operation! Colleagues came to my place and baked a few hundred cookies for my department's Xmas gift giving. Given the number of cookies baked, you can roughly estimate how big my department is ya.
Filled up jars of cookies...and that's not all of it

Some play after all the hard work

After today, don't think I'll be baking any cookies for a long while. The scent of cookie dough makes me sick :S

Was utterly down later in the day, felt like an useless douchebag. Decided to make myself useful by baking. The numerous beating and mixing in this recipe made me go, Really?? a couple of times when I was following through the steps. This is the first time I've beat and mixed so much for a muffin. The muffins turned out surprisingly soft and pudding-ish in texture. Bananas and chocolate go so brainlessly well together. It's really hard to screw up anything that blends the two flavors together. Compared to the recent banana and chocolate muffins I've baked recently, I think I like the previous one slightly better because they're more badass...or maybe 2 young lads are more attractive than one middle aged baker.
Cocoa Banana Muffins (adapted from Nick Malgieri's Modern Baker)
(makes 16 muffins)

Ingredients:
210g all purpose flour
46g alkalized(Dutch process) cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups bananas, peeled and mashed with a fork (use very ripe bananas)
120g sour cream
169g unsalted butter, softened
200g granulated sugar
109g light brown sugar
3 large eggs

Method:
1. Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl and stir well to mix.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the mashed bananas and sour cream; set aside.
4. Combine the butter, sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until well mixed and a little lightened in color, abt 1 min.
5. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating smooth after each addition.
6. Decrease mixer speed to low and beat in 1/2 the flour mixture. Stop the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to scrape down the bowl and beater.
7. Beat in banana mixture. After batter has absorbed the banana mixture, beat in the remaining flour mixture. Stop and scrape down the bowl and beater again.
8. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to give a final mixing to the batter.
9. Divide the batter equally among the cavities in the muffin pans. Bake the muffins until they are well risen and feel firm to the touch, about 30 mins (I took them out at 27mins). Because this is such a liquid batter, test a muffin with a toothpick or the point of a thin-bladed knife - it should emerge with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
8. Cool the muffins in the pan on a rack.

4 comments:

  1. looks like the front cover of the book "500 cakes" (: i love the combi of banana and choc ( the darker the merrier)!

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  2. haha sometimes baking too much of 1 thing can make u feel sick i got this kinda of feelings too sometimes! your coconana muffins looks great! i always love coconana combi nothing could ever go wrong!

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  3. The banana chocolate muffins look so moist. Love the texture.

    I can see lots of hard work for the project cookies and lots of enjoyment getting this project done too :D

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  4. sweetylicious: really? haha lemme go google for the picture as well

    jess: yup, think I've been baking too many of similiar things as well, hopefully can try something new in the coming year!

    Zoe: thanks! hope my colleagues will like our cookies :)

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