Banana Cream Cheese Muffins (香蕉奶酪小松饼）

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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/)

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

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

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  • 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

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

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

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  • 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. 

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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CONCLUSION

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

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

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  • 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.  

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Banana Cream Cheese Cupcakes–One Number Baking Ratio Adventures No. 10

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INTRODUCTION

It is fun and easy to make, you can ask your kids to help out as it is just mix and bake. It is tasty, moist and cheesy. I should have put more cream cheese in it.

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The inspiration of this recipe comes  from one of the entries in the FOUR SEASONS BLOG HOP #22 – Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. The blog owner, Ms. Christian had her version of pumpkin cream cheese muffins. In her muffins, she put one tablespoon  of cream cheese in the batter and the muffins looks extremely delish. I commented on her post that since pumpkin prices in Singapore appeared to be unaffected, I will try her recipe by substituting using carrots. She is unsure but she offered alternatives to substitute with sweet potatoes or yams! How kind is she! I wanted to take this opportunities to thank her for her kind advise.

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This morning when I woke up, I looked at the whole bunch of bananas “sitting” quietly in my dining table. It was ripe and I did not foresee we were able to finish all within a day. Then it stroke my mind the above recipe. I told myself that I should try to get rid of these overly ripe bananas by making some banana cream cheese muffins/cupcakes utilizing my proposed “one number baking ratio” theory…. and I am glad that the results were very satisfactory as you can see for yourself in the picture.

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One number baking ratio basically means that using equal portion of the ingredients to prepare the baked products. If you are interested to read more about my “one number baking ratio” adventures, you can refer to the following posts –Basic Pound Cake, Peanut Butter Muffins, Fruits Dates Cakes, Zebra Patterned Pound Cake, Grapefruit Cognac Pound Cake，Almond Sugee Cake and Yoghurt Marble Cupcakes.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED?

Servings: about: 12 medium muffin size cup cakes

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  • 250 grams of cooking oil or melted butter (I used half each because I have some melted butter left)

  • 250 grams of self raising flours

  • 250 grams of castor sugar or brown sugar

  • 250 grams of eggs (or if you want to use actual weights of 5 eggs, any excess weights from 250grams will have to be deducted from 100 grams of milk) – see explanation below

  • 150 grams of ripe bananas (or if you want to use actual weights of 3 ripe bananas, any excess weights from 100 grams will have to be deducted from 150 grams of milk) – see explanation below

  • 100 grams of milk (or subject to excess volume of bananas and eggs)

  • 1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate

  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon spice mix (or the spice mix for cakes)

  • 1 additional banana for decoration toppings.

Cream Cheese Fillings

  • 100 grams of cream cheese, soften

  • 50 grams of icing sugar

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CACULATION OF ACTUAL MILK VOLUMES USED

My actual eggs volumes used are =5 eggs x 53 grams per egg = 265 grams and my actual banana volumes used are 175 grams. Therefore milk volume = 100 grams – excess egg volumes (265-250) grams – excess banana volumes (175-150)grams = (100-15-25) grams = 60 grams. Therefore my actual usage today is 265 grams of eggs used, 175 grams banana used and 60 grams of milk.

Of course you can just stick to the exact volumes as stated above without performing the above calculations.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preparation

  • Pre-heat oven to 180 degree Celsius

  • Line 12 medium sized muffin tins with muffin cups or slightly greased the muffin tin with butter.

  • Lightly beat the cream cheese and sugar using the machine whisk or manual whisk until smooth and not lumpy. Set aside for later use.

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  • Mesh the bananas using a fork until it is soft and fine.

  • Sift the self raising flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder (spice mix) into the big bowl. Add the sugar and make a well in the centre.

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  • In another bowl, mixed all the liquids ingredients (eggs, meshed bananas, milk, melted butter or cooking oil) together, stir until well mixed.

  • Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use the fork or a big spoon to quickly mix the batter. It is okay if there are some lumps in it.

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  • Scope 2 tablespoons of batter into the muffin cups. Add in one tablespoon of beaten cream cheese. Ensure that the cream cheese does not touch the walls of the muffin cups. Fill in additional batter until it is about 80% full.  Cut 2 thin slices of bananas and placed on top of the batters.

  • Baked in the oven for 15-20 minutes or when a skewer inserted the skewer comes out clean. But note that there are melted cream cheese inside the muffins, so it is best that you inserted near the muffin cups.

Note: 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.

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CONCLUSION

This is a bake that I will strongly recommend. Easy, fast and tasty. Be it a muffin or a cup cake is up to you to call it though there is a thin line to differentiate a muffin from a cupcake. This bake however felled in both muffins and cup cakes categories. It is a muffin because there is no creaming but a simple mix and bake. It is not a muffin because it’s fat content have reached the cake level and its flour is relatively less than what is usually used in a muffin….Sound confusing, never mind, me too. Since I have to give it a name, I have decided to call it BANANA CREAM CHEESE CUPCAKES. 

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Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day. For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE.

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