This is a recipe for banana-bran muffins that belong on the breakfast/brunch table but if you want to add some decadence …. well, this caramel sauce does exactly that without overpowering! Yields about 16 muffins.
For the muffins:
300g cake flour
100g bran flakes
300g brown sugar
1,2ml salt
50ml cultured buttermilk
15ml bicarbonate of soda
450ml cultured buttermilk
2 eggs
100ml vegetable oil
5ml vanilla essence
250ml mashed banana
about 3 extra bananas
Preheat your oven to 180℃ and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cups.
Add the cake flour, bran flakes, brown sugar and salt to a mixing bowl, stir through and set aside.
Pour the 50ml buttermilk into a small bowl and add the bicarbonate of soda to it. Stir through and set aside.
Add the 450ml buttermilk, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla to a wide-mouth jug and whisk together by hand.
Pour the buttermilk-bicarbonate mixture into the liquid mixture and stir through.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients.
Add the mashed banana and mix together until JUST mixed through.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. At this stage I like to add another piece of banana of about 4 cm, which I simply place on top of the muffin batter.
Bake the muffins for 18 – 20 minutes and cool on a cooling rack
For the caramel sauce:
250ml sugar
60ml butter
a pinch of salt
125ml cream
15ml vanilla
Add all the ingredients to a small saucepan over low heat.
Stir together with a whisk until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
Simmer the sauce over a medium heat while whisking continuously until the sauce thickens. This will take about 8 minutes.
Take the caramel sauce from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes – the sauce will thicken more as it cools down.
Spoon the warm caramel onto the muffins and serve.
My Whisk and I 