Last week was Holi, the festival of colour. Holi is one of my favourite Indian festivals, and not to mention holidays! But alas, this year was a no show on my part, on account of my wisdom teeth extraction surgery (yes, ouch!). But that didn’t keep me from celebrating Holi, with a little burst of colour, by baking these banana bread poppers, done 2 ways- one with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar (made using this formula: cinnamon + sugar, duh!) and the other with a smother of rich Belgian chocolate (courtesy of Pin). The recipe yielded a hearty 7” by 3” loaf + 12 mini muffins.
Ingredients:
1. 4 ripe bananas
2. 3/4 cup brown sugar
3. 1/2 cup room-temperature/slightly runny butter (if you use unsalted, add 1/4th tsp of salt to the batter)
4. 2 cups all purpose flour
5. 2 tsp baking powder
6. 1/3 cup of melted good quality Belgian (or other) semi-sweet chocolate chips
7. Cinnamon Sugar (1/4th cup brown sugar mixed with 2 tsp ground cinnamon)
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 175*c. Prepare the loaf tin and the mini muffin pan by greasing the loan tin and lining the muffin pans with paper liners, respectively. I used insanely colourful liners. I think it made the banana bread taste better. J
2. Mash bananas in a bowl using a potato masher. Beat in the sugar and butter, till you have a smooth consistency. I was too lazy to bring out the electric hand mixer for this, so I just beat it with a whisk for a few minutes till lump free and well incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix into the wet ingredients. Pour into the lined pan and tins.
4. Sprinkle half the muffins with cinnamon sugar and dollop chocolate over the rest. For the loaf, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and smear some chocolate along the centre- so you get both the cinnamon and the chocolate! Mmmm…..
5. Bake muffins for 15-20 minutes. The loaf will be perfect in about 25-30 minutes. Stick a toothpick into the centre and it should come out nearly clean (a few crumbs are okay because it is best a bit moist). Transfer to a wire rack, while still in the tins/pan, and remove when cool enough to handle.
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Feedback:
1. You can skip the mini muffins and opt for a chunkier wholesome loaf.
2. Skipping the toppings or swapping them with anything from nuts to muesli works wonders.
3. My mini muffins were left in the over too long, but as a quick and effective fix to salvage these gems, sprinkle with a few tea spoons of water and microwave for about 40-50 seconds. You’ll have soft, moist and incredible tasty muffins.
