By TV Chef, Jeeny Maltese

Jeeny Maltese, Co-Founder of My Nutrition Ireland and Food/Recipe Editor at the theTaste.ie has kindly agreed to share her content with us. Jeeny is a TV Chef who specialises in producing healthy recipes and alternatives.

For the next 7 weeks we’ll be sharing with you some of her finest creations. Week 5, is something that has been a recent craze under lockdown, Banana Bread! Baking, unlike cooking can really be engaging and a fun thing to do with your little ones. It’s super moist, fluffy, fragrant, buttery and sweet. Hope you dads try this one, and if you do, please share it with us. Follow the below recipe and we would like to see your attempts.

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups (190g) whole wheat flour (or self raising flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bread soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
3 large ripe bananas or about 4 small ones (about 1 and 1/2 cups mashed)*
6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)
2/3 cup (135g) dark brown sugar cane (or coconut sugar)*
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons (30ml) any milk*
optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or dark chocolate chips.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or use cupcake liners. (Or line a loaf pan with grease proof paper for a banana loaf cake). 2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, bread soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Set aside. 
3. In a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, mash the bananas. On medium speed, beat or whisk in the melted butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and milk. 
4. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then fold or whisk until combined. If adding nuts or chocolate chips, fold them in now. Batter will be thick.

5. Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 220C then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 180°C. Bake for an additional 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 20-30 minutes, give or take. (For mini muffins, bake 12-14 total minutes at 180°C (For the loaf cake bake for 40-50 minutes at 200C about 10 minutes initially then at 160C until done). 6. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.