Bunny Muffins
This fun Easter/Spring recipe is a great way to use up those ripe bananas that may lurk in the fruit bowl.
I sometimes have dreams (or nightmares) about bananas as we receive lots of these, often very ripe as part of our mission to intercept food from being wasted.
Being loathe to waste anything, I try to drum up many ways of using them in recipes. This recipe, like most bakes using bananas, requires that they are ripe to ensure that they are soft enough and provide the right sweetness. Bananas ripen through a natural process where they produce ethene (commonly known as ethylene) gas, which triggers enzymes to convert starches into sugars, soften the flesh, and turn the peel from green to yellow/brown.
In the UK, it is estimated that 1.4m edible bananas are binned every day at a cost of £80 million a year. A third of consumers admit to discarding a banana if it has even a minor bruise or black mark on the skin. More than one in 10 also throw the fruit away if it shows any green on the skin.
This waste has an impact:
- About 5-gallons of water per day is required for one banana tree alone
- They are mostly flown or shipped over to our country, creating more CO2 gases
- As with all foods in landfill, as they decompose, they produce greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, i.e. global warming
For more information on Food Waste and Climate Change, please see our LCBC Blog.
Bunny Muffins
Equipment
- Weighing scales
- Measuring Spoons
- Mixing spoon
- Fork
- Muffin Tray
- Muffin liners optional - you can grease the tin if needed
- Oven
Ingredients
Muffins
- 2 small ripe bananas mashed (about 150g)
- 4 tbsp brown sugar
- 50 g Greek or natural yogurt
- 50 g oil
- 1 egg
- 125 g wholemeal flour + 2 tsp baking powder or use 125g self raising flour
- 75 g chopped chocolate/choc chips
Topping
- 50 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp water
- 25 g desiccated coconut
- 6 marshmallows cut in half diagonally
- 12 edible eyes
- 6 jelly beans
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- In a bowl, mash the bananas thoroughly with the sugar. Stir in the yogurt and oil and beat in the egg.
- Stir in the baking powder, then the flour, and mix gently.
- Stir in the chopped chocolate
- Spoon the batter into the individual muffin cases.
- Bake in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes. You can decorate the muffins when still warm, but preferably, decorate when cool.
Decoration
- Mix the icing sugar with the water in one small bowl
- Measure the coconut in another
- Dip the cooled cakes first in the icing, then the coconut.
- Dip the uncut edges of the marshmallows in the remaining icing, then fix to the top of the muffins for the ‘ears’
- Press a jelly bean in the cakes to make a nose
- Press 2 edible eyes in the cakes for the eyes
Notes
The recipes are free to everyone to use (please give credits to us if you choose to use them), and always will be, but our non-profit organisation incurs many costs to keep it running. If you would like to help keep it going, please consider giving a donation. If you feel inspired to try more, why not invest in our Recipe Collection, available online or from our Eco Market.
Thank you
Card Donations PayPal Donations
Nutritional Benefits:
Bananas: Potassium is important to maintain the functioning of cells, nerves and muscles
Tryptophan helps lift the mood and sleep
Like all fruit, bananas are a source of soluble fibre; essential for a healthy digestive system.
Wholemeal flour contains more B vitamins (needed to release energy from nutrients and a healthy nervous system) and vitamin E content than white (helping wound healing, immunity and healthy eyes, skin and red blood cells) as well as insoluble fibre essential for good digestive health and stabilising blood sugars.
Lower sugar than most sweet baked foods.