Sweet sweet Friday: Banana Muffins

A terrible thing has happened in our lives: the Boy Wonder is now starting work at 6.30am. This is not as bad as last year, when he used to start at 6am or even earlier, but it's not doing much for his demeanour (or mine). The funny thing is that the powers that be keep telling him how exhausted he looks, yet seem surprised when he explains why.

In any case, these early starts (awake at 5.30, anticipating the alarm, stumbling around the house in the dark, the 35-minute walk through the dark streets) mean he needs high-octane carbs to get him through the morning without going into meltdown. At the risk of sounding like a Stepford Wife, I'm on a mission to find new, slightly more nutritious ways to stop that from happening. This is my latest experiment.

Spicy Banana Muffins
These are egg-less and can be dairy-free if you use soy milk (and nut free if you leave out the nuts, obviously). Just don't leave out the bananas.

1 3/4 cups flour
1Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil (I use sunflower)
1 cup mashed banana (about two large bananas)
3/4 cup milk
1Tbsp golden syrup
1 cup walnuts - roughly chop about half of them, leave the others whole or in large pieces for decoration

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 12-hole muffin tin.
Sift the flour, baking powder and spices into a large bowl. In another bowl, beat the sugar and oil together, then stir in the banana, milk and golden syrup. Add this wet mixture and the chopped walnuts to the dry ingredients. Fold together until just combined. Divide between the muffin tins - you should get about 8-10 decent ones. Press the reserved walnuts gently on top of the batter. Bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and springy to touch. Turn out of the tins and cool on a rack. These freeze well.

Hope you all have a sweet sweet Friday and a great weekend x