I always thought this receipe would be one of the first ones I put up on this blog and I’m surprised it’s taken me this long.

That’s because these banana muffins are so quick to make and you can’t really go wrong with this easy receipe and even vary it slightly if you like by adding some chopped nuts or chocolate chips or  – if you can find them in the shops – peanut butter chips!

Making these muffins is also the best way of using up old bananas that may have gotten left at the bottom of the fruit bowl, you know those forgotten bananas that that no one wants to eat as they’ve gone all bruised and brown or even black.

Well, they are perfect for this receipe.
And don’t attempt to use bananas that haven’t gone dark yet – for this receipe, the browner the bananas the better! If you remember this you can’t really go wrong with these crowd pleasers…

For 12 cupcake sized muffins you’ll need:

• 3 big, over ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup of sunflower oil
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 1 ½ cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• optional: 1/2  cup chocolate or peanut butter chips or walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a muffin tin with paper cases.

Mash the bananas with a fork.

In a large bowl mix the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.

Now add all other ingredients and mix them together.

It really is as easy as that!
As long as you mix up the flour with the raising ingredients first the order of the rest doesn’t matter and you can even mix everything together with a wooden spoon or fork (as with all muffins this is preferable to using an electric whisk to get the right muffin texture).

Fill the muffin cases evenly and bake for about 20 – 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffins comes out clean. Leave to cool down in the tin for a few minutes then lt the muffins cool on a wire rack.

They will keep in a cake tin for a few days!