Banana, cashew butter and chocolate chip muffins

Muffins are probably one of our favourite breakfasts to eat on the go. They are so easy to put together and they freeze well so you can jut defrost one overnight for your breakfast in the morning. As usual I had a few over ripe bananas so I decided to make some banana muffins. Recently I was contacted by My Protein who are the largest online sports supplement store in Europe. As you can imagine they sell a lot of high protein products and have a very large selection of them. Initially I wondered how I would incorporate it into baking and I was pleasantly surprised as they sell a lot of nut butters, organic flours, coconut oil, dried fruit, oats and more. I decided to try out kamut flour and cashew butter and knew they would work well in a muffin recipe. 

I've never heard of Kamut flour before so I'll just explain a little in case you haven't either. It's a wheat flour made from the ancient durum wheat relative. It's high in selenium, zinc, magnesium and protein and low in saturated fat. It has a slightly nutty flavour and a very faint smell of nut/protein. The cashew butter was absolutely delicious. It had the lovely aroma of cashew nuts and you can clearly see the nuts in the butter. 

The muffins are made of banana, cashew butter, chocolate chips and kamut flour. I added a sprinkling of raw cashew nuts on top as I had some leftover from another recipe. It adds extra crunch and flavour to the muffins. The muffins were really filling and you can clearly taste the banana and cashew butter. The chocolate chips added a little hint of naughtiness rounded up the flavours nicely. I think some fresh fruit such as blueberries and maybe a little yoghurt will lighten the muffin and make it better. Looks like there's more experimenting to be had in the kitchen! 

I'm sending these to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and myself on alternate months. The letter ths month is B for banana.

 cashew butter and kamut flour 

 you can clearly see the nuts in the cashew butter 

 dry ingredients + wet ingredients and chocolate chips 

 adding chocolate chips 

 I added a sprinkling of raw cashew nuts on top for extra crunch and flavour 

Makes 12 muffins
250g kamut flour
100g brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 ripe bananas, mashed
250mls milk
200g cashew butter
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs
60g honey
100g dark chocolate chips.

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar and baking powder and set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix the mashed bananas, milk, vegetable oil, eggs, honey and cashew butter.
• Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until it just comes together.
• Finally stir in the chocolate chips.
• Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Disclaimer: I was sent the my protein products for review purposes. A positive review was not required and all opinions are my own. This is not a sponsored post. 

Degustabox review and Molten Nut Butter and Chocolate Fondant Cake

It's time for another What's in my Degustabox? and a very exciting recipe. I've been receiving a Degustabox on a monthly basis for a few months now. It's like having a surprise delivery of goodies every month. Degustabox is a no obligation monthly subscription which costs £12.99 including delivery. You get 9 to 14 surprise products and it's usually a good mixed selection of goodies. I have a special discount code for all my readers if you are interested in signing up a box for yourself or for a family memeber/friend. You get a £3.00 discount when registering by using this code F3TJ1 which makes it just under a tenner for a goodie box including delivery.

This is my favourite box so far as I loved pretty much everything in it. There's quite a lot of sweet stuff and 2 items with peanut butter! I decided to create a recipe using the Whole Earth Three Nut Butter which I have tried previously. I love Whole Earth nut butters as they are very tasty and not overly sweet. I made a Molten Nut Butter and Chocolate Fondant Cake which sinfully delicious. It took a bit of trial and error and I think I ended up making these about 6 times before I finally got the timings right. The cake is cooked on the outside but has a gooey melting centre of chocolate and three nut butter. It was best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It would be a very impressive dessert at dinner parties but nerve wrecking as you may not get it perfect.

 February Degustabox 

 American Muffin Company Chocolate Brownie Bites. These are gluten free and wheat free and tasted more like cake than a brownie. 

 Beet it Sport bars which contain 400mg of dietary nitrate and is used by over 150 universities world wide for research into the benefits of lowering blood pressure and improving sports performance. 

 Jack Link's Beef Snack which is great for a protein snack on the go. 

 Whole Earth Three Nut Butter contains cashews, hazelnuts and peanuts. It's made with fresh ingredients with no added sugar and you can really taste the different nuts in them. 

 Peanut Hottie which is a peanut butter flavoured hot drink.I've already tried this as I received it as a gift from a friend and makes a good peanut butter hot chocolate! Perfect for a quick peanut butter fix.

Laimon Fresh - a refreshing, sparkling, lime,lemon and mint drink. If you like citrus then you will definitely like this drink. The mint adds another layer of freshness 

 Melba thins which are one of my faouvrites. The crisp toasts are individually packed in packs of 5 which makes it handy for lunch boxes. 

 Schwartz Flavour Shots - Spanish Paella and Indian Mild Masala Curry. These flavour shots contain a unique blend of herbs, spices and seasoning which you can use to create really tasty meals. There are also recipes available on their website www.schwartz.co.uk

 Lily O'Brien's Cocoa Cookie Crunch - delicious little bites of chocolate biscuit biscuits covered in chocolate. They were really tasty and I could have easily eaten the whole pack myself! 

 

  whisk the sugar, egg and egg yolk 

 add in the melted chocolate and flour 

 chocolate mixture 

 half fill the ramekin and add a generous teaspoonful of three nut butter in the middle

 cover with the remaining chocolate mixture 

 fresh from the oven 

 The cake is cooked and set on the outside

 soft, gooey, melting centre 

 I love the melting centre!

Recipe adapted from this recipe online which in turn is based on Donna Hay's recipe

Makes 3 ramekins

100g dark chocolate
50g butter + extra for greasing
1 egg
1 egg yolk
55g caster sugar
18g plain flour
3 heaped teaspoons three nut butter

• Preheat the oven to 200C. 
• Place the chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. 
• In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, egg and egg yolk. 
• Add in the cooled, melted chocolate mixture and flour and whisk again. 
• Butter your ramekins generously - this is really important as you don't want the cake to stick. I tried using the non stick spray but it turned out better with a generous rub of butter.
• Spoon the mixture into the ramekins until about half full.
• Place a generous teaspoonful or 2 teaspoons of the three nut butter in the middle of the batter. 
• Cover with the remaining chocolate mixture. 
• Bake in the preheated oven for 8-9 minutes. The timing will vary with your oven - 8.5 minutes was the perfect time for my oven. If it's undercooked then you get a very messy plate. If it's overcooked you don't get the molten centre. 
• Run a hot knife around the edge of the ramekin and turn the cake out onto a plate. It should come out easily if you've properly buttered the ramekin dish before baking.
• Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

Disclaimer: I was sent a Degustabox for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review or to create a recipe. All opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post.

Cashew Butter and Honey Breakfast Muffins

If you read my blog regularly, you will know that I love peanut butter. I know that there are other nut butters available such as almond butter or cashew butter but I've never tried them until now. 

Meridian Foods make nut and seed butters in their factory in North Wales. They are an excellent source of protein and energy as they are 100% nuts and they don't contain any palm oil. They have a wide range of nut and seed butters as well as other products which you can read about here. 

I had a look at their website for recipe inspiration and decided to give these breakfast muffins a go. They were quick and simple to put together and made for a substantial breakfast. You can actually taste the cashew butter which I was honestly surprised by as I thought it would be lost in the muffin. I think adding some real cashew nuts will add to the flavour and provide a different texture to the muffin. 

 mixing the dry ingredients 

 mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients 

 ready to go in the oven

 yum! 

Recipe from Meridian website

Disclaimer: I was sent a selection of nut butters from Meridian for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a paid post.