Banana, walnut and maple syrup muffins

In an effort to cut down on plastic waste I recently bought some bananas loose. The shop doesn't have scales so produce is sold by the item rather than by the weight. This means I knew exactly what each banana cost me. As what happens regularly with bananas they went from green to black in no time at all. Food waste is bad enough but even worse when you know how much it is going to cost you! While I like the taste of just ripe bananas I can't abide them once they have turned black so I decided the best thing to do with them as usual was to bake them into a cake.

If you are looking for something quick and easy then muffins are the thing to bake. The liquid oil means you don't have to wait for the fat to soften before you start baking. Also there's no need to use an electric whisk as muffins are best made by quickly stirring all the ingredients until they are just combined.

To add extra hit of flavour and texture I had a rummage through the cupboards and found walnuts and maple syrup. Both work really well with bananas and definitely enhance the muffins. My final tip for these muffins to remove them from the tins as soon as possible after you have taken them out of the oven as this seems to help to stop the paper cases from sticking to the muffins too much.

Equipment: 12 cup muffin tin with paper cases, 2 large bowls, wire rack

Ingredients

7½ oz (215g) Self raising flour

1tsp (5ml) Bicarbonate of soda

2 Ripe bananas

2½ oz (75g) Soft light brown sugar

2 Eggs

3fl oz (90ml) Sunflower or vegetable oil

3fl oz (90ml) Maple syrup

2oz (55g) Walnuts, chopped

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Gas mark 5.

2. Mix together the flour and bicarbonate of soda.

3. In the other bowl mash the bananas then add the sugar, eggs, oil and maple syrup.

4. Pour all of the wet ingredients into the dry and add the walnuts.

5. Stir until the mixture is just combined and no dry flour is visible. The mixture should look quite lumpy.

6. Put into the prepared cases and for around 20 minutes until the tops are golden and springy to the touch.

7. Remove from the tin immediately and leave to cool on a wire rack.