Crunchy top banana muffins

I have a small food snobbery confession to make - I don't really like spotty, overripe bananas... Ever since I was young, I've never been able to eat bananas that look like this. I used to always ignore them in the fruit basket in the hope that someone else would take pity and consume the really ripe bananas so that I didn't have to.

That was before I discovered baking as a young girl! I mean, I still dislike spotty bananas, but they are also seen as an opportunity through a baker's eyes. Banana bread, banana cake, banana muffins - the list is endless :)

I made these muffins very early this morning and they were delicious. The crunch of the topping before you bite into the soft and moist muffin below - yum! I also really love that these muffins contain linseeds. Linseeds are very good for you, but are rarely used in baking recipes. My crunchy top muffins are a great breakfast on the run, or they'd make a nice morning/afternoon tea :)


So here's the recipe!

Ingredients
(For the muffin)
125g plain flour
3 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
50 ml milk
50 ml vegetable oil
2 large ripe bananas, roughly mashed
(For the topping)
1 tbsp linseeds
15 g cold butter cut up
40g demerara sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tbsp water

Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Start on the muffin topping by giving the linseeds a good bash in the mortar and pestle to break them up a bit. Continuing on the topping prep, combine the SR flour and butter in a small bowl and rub together with your fingers to produce fine breadcrumbs. Add the demerara sugar, cinnamon and linseeds, then stir in the water and lightly combine.

Now the muffins - sieve the plain flour, brown sugar and baking powder into a bowl and make a well in the centre. In another bowl whisk together the egg, oil and milk with a fork. Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry muffin ingredients. Stir together. Stir in mashed bananas until just combined, don't mix too much.

Divide mixture among 6 muffin cases, sprinkle the muffin topping over each. Bake in oven for approximately 25-30 minutes - you may wish to do a skewer test in the middle of a muffin to check they're cooked before them removing from the oven.


Have a great day, everyone!

Ladybird x