Banana Muffins with Mint Chocolate and Hazelnuts

Elevate your banana muffins with this delightful twist on a classic recipe. These Banana Muffins with Mint Chocolate and Hazelnuts are a scrumptious fusion of flavours and textures that will leave your taste buds dancing.

Below you will find a new variation of this recipe that I made when I only had one ripe banana.

Instead of the usual pecans, we've incorporated toasted hazelnuts for a rich, nutty crunch that complements the sweetness of ripe bananas.

Demerara sugar adds a rustic, caramel-like sweetness that perfectly balances the wholesome banana goodness.

I made this recipe last week which I adapted from the Joy of Baking but used ingredients I had at home. 

I used hazelnuts instead of pecans, demerara sugar instead of white sugar, I had only 2 ripe bananas, instead of 3, so I made some minor adjustments to the recipe.

My twist to the recipe is that I also added some mint chocolates  which made a huge difference to the taste.

Update September 2023:

Recently I had one very ripe leftover banana, so I made this recipe again but with ingredients I had at home. Instead of butter, I used olive oil and instead of mint chocolates, I had a dark chocolate, which I chopped and added it to the butter.

I did not have any hazelnuts to use but the result was equally good.

It only took 5 minutes to prepare, as I did the whole procedure in a food processor.

One Banana Muffins with Dark Chocolate

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time:  20 minutes
Makes: 7 regular sized muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 medium egg
• 2 tablespoon mild extra virgin olive oil
• 60 grams all-purpose flour
• 50 grams cane sugar
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 10 grams lemon flavoured vanilla sugar
• 50 grams dark chocolate, chopped into smaller pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat a fan forced oven to 170o C and position the oven rack in the middle.
2. In a food processor put the banana, egg, olive oil and sugar and mix until creamy, about 1 minute.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla sugar.
4. Put them in the food processor and mix until incorporated. (Be careful not to over mix; as over mixing can result in tough muffins).
5. Add the chopped chocolate and mix with a spoon.
6. Spoon the batter into silicon muffin tins, filling each cup about two-thirds full.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for five minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

On another note, I have been getting a lot of e-mails asking me regarding the progress of the book and when it will be published. 

All I can say is that I am working hard, all my spare time, which is not a lot, to learn the new software in order to create the book.   

You can see that I am not posting regularly and apart from the time I am taking short breaks and reading a few posts or leaving a comment on Facebook, I am spending the rest of my free time reading tutorials. 

I have a long way to go, so hope you can bear with me until then 🙂   I apologize for not visiting you regularly but at least I try to visit back those who leave a comment on my blog.

Update 2010: My cookbook Mint, Cinnamon & Blossom Water, Flavours of Cyprus, Kopiaste! has finally been published!

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!!