Choco-banana-nut cupcakes {Recipe}

Chocolate banana walnut cupcakes!  What a mouthful!  And oh so yummy too! :)
I love banana cake and bread but had never tried making either so when I had some bananas left over, I thought it was time to try something new.  I got the main recipe from epicurious but tweaked it a bit as I did not have cinnamon and reduced the sugar as I did not want it so sweet.  I also changed the quantity of nuts and chocolate, and you can add more if you want, depending on how much you like them in your cake.


Recipe for Choco-banana-nut cupcakes

2  1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 stick (about 113g) butter, softened  (I use the salted kind but you can use unsalted butter and add ½ tsp salt)

1/2 cup sugar (more if you want it sweeter)

2 eggs

1  1/4 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas)

2/3 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup  bittersweet chocolate chips (or as much as you want. I used Ghirardelli brand, 60% cacao, you can use semi-sweet chocolate too if you like)

1/2 cup walnuts (or more if you like it more nutty), toasted, cooled and chopped coarsely

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Sift together flour, soda and salt (if using).
3. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add eggs until blended. 
4. Beat in bananas, yogurt and vanilla.  (Mixture will look curdled, don’t worry!)
5. Fold in flour, chocolate chips and nuts.
6. Put into cupcake liners and bake for about 12-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Let the cupcakes cool a little before turning them out onto a rack to cool completely.

This recipe made 24 cupcakes as I filled the liners halfway with batter but I think, next time, I would fill them up to almost full as they did not rise much.  Let me know how it goes if you try it.

Happy baking! :)