Stem Ginger & Banana Muffins

By Cakeoftheweek @cakeoftheweek

I recently made two fatal errors. The first was buying more bananas than I was going to eat. The second was throwing the bananas into the same cupboard as some more, already over-ripe, bananas. Bananas release a ripening chemical into the air as it is, so putting these two bunches together quickly led to some rather black bananas. 
What to do with these over-ripe bananas? I've already made Chocolate & Banana Loaf Cake, Peanut Butter, Banana & Chocolate Cake  and a Totally Bananas Banana Cake; maybe it was time to try something different. For some reason I was drawn to the concept of ginger and banana, and so the concept for these Stem Ginger & Banana Muffins was born.

Right at the back of my baking cupboard was a jar of stem ginger in syrup, so I used what was left in these muffins. As always, this recipe was a but ad-hoc but the results were spectacular. The muffins tasted of fiery ginger and toffee-banana, and were very moist. I brought them into work so I wouldn't have to eat them all, and they went down very well.
Makes 24
Ingredients
  • 225g Plain Flour
  • 2 Tsp Baking Powder
  • 150g Caster Sugar
  • 75g Dark Muscovado Sugar
  • 2 Ripe Bananas
  • 1/2 Jar Stem Ginger + Syrup
  • 350mL Milk
  • 225g Butter
  • 2 Eggs
Recipe
  • Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan and line a muffin tin with muffin cases.
  • Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the caster sugar, muscovado sugar and baking powder.
  • Roughly chop the bananas and stem ginger, then stir into the flour mixture.
  • Melt the butter over a low heat, then remove from the heat.
  • Make a well in the flour mixture, then pour in the melted butter, followed by the stem ginger syrup, the milk and the eggs.
  • Gently stir until the mixture is just combined. Overmixing will lead to tougher muffins.
  • Divide the mixture between the muffin cases, then bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.