Banana Cream Cheese Muffins (香蕉奶酪小松饼）

INTRODUCTION

This is not a new recipe, but a recipe that have substantially modified to take into reader needs by reducing the quantity of the ingredients and making it easier to prepare the muffins. The old recipe is more fragrant and sinful due to different proportion of ingredients used. However, it is tougher to prepare due to its watery batter than some readers do not get use to the batter texture. It is still a very good recipe and for those who wanted to try, you can refer to this post: Banana Cream Cheese Cupcakes–One Number Baking Ratio Adventures No. 10

The kids love these muffins. The reason is simple because there is a scoop of sweeten cream cheese inside the muffins. In fact banana is a good moisture retainer and cream cheese provide a smoothen effect for the muffins.

Some readers are asking me why my muffins rose beautifully. I  believed that muffins should look like volcanoes. It shouldn’t be flat top like a cupcake because of its different way of preparation.

Muffins are theoretically uses less fats, simple mixing, more compact and leavened (raised) by eggs, baking powder or baking soda. Egg in itself is a raising agent and besides eggs, baking powder and baking soda is of critical importance to assist in making the muffins fluffy. The quantity and types of these raising agent will generally depends on how heavy is the batter… For lighter muffins, I have resorted to the use of self raising flour alone whereas for those batters such as sweet potatoes, banana I will advise to use baking soda too.

If you do not have self raising flour , in general, you can add 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and 0.5 teaspoon of salt to 1 cup (about 150 grams ) of plain or all purpose flour (source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/self-rising-flour/)

---

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: Prepared about 6-8 muffins depends on the size of muffins

• 150 grams of melted butter 
• 200 grams of plain or all purpose flour
• 150 grams of castor sugar or brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150 grams of ripe bananas 
• 20 grams of milk 
• 1/2 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon spice mix (or the spice mix for cakes)
• additional banana for decoration toppings

 Cream Cheese Fillings

• 150 grams of cream cheese, soften
• 80 grams of icing sugar or powdered sugar

 

---

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius and get ready 6-8 muffin cups.

• Put the soften cream cheese in a bowl, add icing sugar, either manually or use a machine to beat it until light and fluffy. Set aside for later use. Put the banana in another bowl, use a fork to mash it until puree form. 

• Add the eggs, milk follow by the melted butter to the mashed banana. Lightly beat until an emulsion is form. Set aside for later use.

• In another big mixing bowl, sift baking powder, baking soda, brown or castor sugar, plain flour and cinnamon powder or mixed spice. Make a well in the centre, pour the banana egg mixture to the centre of the flour. Use a FORK or SPOON  to stir until well mixed. A bit lumpy is acceptable for muffins. Over stirring or mixing will result in chewy muffins as gluten have developed.

• Fill half the muffin cups with the batter. Scope a tablespoon of beaten cream cheese and place on the centre of the muffin batter. Top up the cups to about 80% full with the remaining batter. Have some slices of banana on top of the muffin. Bake at the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

• Make sure all the batters have cover the cheese and so that there is no chance for the hot cheese to leak out. Otherwise, it will resulted in an elephant muffin like this.

---

CONCLUSION

Those readers have tried my old recipe love the muffin very much. Do give it a try if you haven’t.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

---

• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 8 June 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.  

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 11,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.