Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

I love peanut buttah! The creamy one, not the chunky one and these days I buy the no sugar added variety. The brand that my grandpa used to buy was Skippy. When I was small, my mum made me peanut butter sandwiches and she sprinkled some sugar onto the peanut butter for that extra crunch. Not only that, she cut the sandwiches into various shapes to amuse me :)

There was a time when I had breathing difficulties which the good doctor at the Kuala Terengganu General Hospital attributed to me being overweight. I was only 8 years old at the time. And he told my grandpa - No more peanut butter! Not only that, he suggested some form of exercise like ballet. Ballet? Me do ballet? Luckily at the time, there was no such thing as ballet classes. Thank goodness!

This peanut butter muffin came about after I watched Rachel Allen's Cake Diaries. Actually she was already spooning the batter when I tuned in. Thus began my search for a recipe. There are so many recipes out there. As usual, under such circumstances, I come up with something of my own after getting the general idea of how to go about it.

These muffins were baked a few weeks ago. I had a big bunch of bananas which were just ripe, not quite suitable yet for baking but I couldn't wait. I wanted my muffins there and then (that was before I seriously considered going on a diet). Because the bananas were not that sweet yet, I added 1/2 cup of sugar. Lately, I tend to leave out sugar if the bananas are already very sweet. 

I did not measure an exact amount for the peanut butter. I just simply scooped 2 generous tablespoons and mixed into the batter. And since I had some roasted pecans leftover from a previous bake, I decided to use them as topping. I'll have to say that the muffins turned out very well. They smelled good and the texture was soft and fluffy. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have added a teaspoon of cinnamon and that would have made the muffins even more aromatic. I was very happy with the muffins and happily ate two. Cheers Dr Kuljit Singh!

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Recipe source : Phong Hong as inspired by the many recipes on the web.

Ingredients :

- 230g self raising flour

- 1/2 cup Muscavado sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional, I will add in future)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 50g butter, melted

- 2 generous tablespoons of creamy peanut butter (I used no sugar added)

- 1 cup buttermilk

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 2 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed

For topping :

- 60g chopped roasted pecans (Use more if you prefer more nuts)

Method :

1. In a mixing bowl, add flour, sugar and cinnamon powder (if using). Whisk to combine and set aside.

2. In another mixing bowl, add butter, peanut butter, buttermilk, vanilla extract, eggs and bananas. Stir to combine.

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour/sugar mixture and gently mix to combine.

4. Scoop batter into muffin pan lined with cupcake liners.

5. Bake at 160C for 23 minutes or until a skewer inserted into a muffin comes out clean.