Banana & Chocolate Muffins

Today I made a batch of Banana & Chocolate Muffins - an ideal way of using up the ripe banana that nobody will eat.

The basic muffin recipe I use is really simple, I just throw in the flavours I fancy/have to hand.

250g (9 oz) Plain Flour
150g (5oz) Caster Sugar
3 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

225ml (8 fl oz) Semi-skimmed Milk
4 Tablespoons of Vegetable Oil
1 Egg

Additional flavour ingredients as required

Preheat the oven to 200 C/Gas 4
Place all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.  Stir, then make a well in the middle.
In another bowl beat the egg and add the remaining wet ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients to the well in the dry bowl and quickly mix the two together with a fork (but don't beat).  Then add the flavours (in my case it was one ripe mashed banana and approx 100g of dark chocolate broken into small chunks) and stir.  Divide into muffin paper cases/tin.  Bake for 20-25 minutes till golden brown. 

Other possible flavours I've used are:

Coffee & Chocolate
Date
Blueberry
Apple & Cinnamon

This recipe can also be made into a savoury muffin by putting half the sugar in and adding grated cheese & chives or perhaps cooked bacon & onions.