Banana and Blueberry Muffins

MacMan is often frustrated with me for buying too many bananas! The kids do eat them - as do I - but the Princess of Power in particular is fickle and will eats loads one week and none the next. But with recipes like this one for banana and blueberry muffins, there is no excuse for aging bananas to get thrown away. It's blueberry season here, so I used fresh. But frozen would do just as well.
I love making muffins, and have two recipe books dedicated to this food alone. This recipe is from 'Muffin Time' by NZ food writer Jill Brewis. Muffins aren't as pretty as Nigella cup-cakes, but the variety and combinations are endless. For muffin virgins, it's useful to note that the method of mixing is quite different that for a traditional sponge mixture. No creaming of sugar and butter here. Instead, all the dry ingredients are mixed together thoroughly, and all the wet ingredients are mixed together separately. Lastly, add the wet to the dry. Most recipes produce a mixture that looks more like a batter than a cake mixture.

Banana and Blueberry Muffins
Makes 12 standard muffins

1 ½ cups SR Flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
Pinch salt
1 egg
2 tbsp vegetable oil
¾ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 mashed banana (I used 2 small)
¾ cup blueberries (I used 125g punnet)

• Preheat oven to 200C. Grease muffin pan - or line with papers if you don't trust your tin like me!
• Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl.
• Mix egg, oil, milk, vanilla and mashed banana in a separate bowl. Add the blue berries.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour in the liquid. Mix until just combined. Don't over mix else the muffins will be tough.
• Spoon the mixture into the cases. Bake for 12-15 mins, until golden brown and spring back when gently pressed with your finger.

We all loved these. I have to say banana and blueberry might not be a combination I would have thought of - but it works really well. The muffins were really light, and the juice of the blueberries bursts in your mouth as you bite into the muffin. Yum!