Six baked muffins in a red silicone muffin tray, viewed from above.

Holidays have almost begun! Today is the first day when I don’t have to teach at the university. The university classes restart on 3 Jan. Well, I say ‘almost’ because I am still technically teaching until early next week, but only the few private students that I have and through video conference. Moreover, I still have close to 50 copies of final exams that I need to correct. Regardless, Christmas is in the air!

Since I have time on my hands, I have decided to do some baking. But, bake what? Opening the fridge, my eyes automatically drift to the two super ripe black bananas that have been hibernating in my fridge for at least 2 weeks. Why not some muffins for breakfast. To add some crunchiness to the muffins and to make use of homegrown goodies, I  will sprinkle some of the homegrown walnuts that are lying in the pantry.

A quick search on the Internet shows me a simple recipe that suits my needs. Following are some photos taken during the baking process. End result: 12 fluffy, but not sweet muffins for the breakfasts of the next few days.

A stand mixer whisking muffin batter, with a small bowl of Nutella nearby.
Most of the ingredients are now in the mixer ( Flour, baking powder, salt, butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, bananas and vanilla). I have also thrown in the remaining dark chocolate that is in the fridge. Just waiting for the crushed walnuts.
A meat tenderiser next to cracked walnuts on a wooden board.
Not a very modern way of cracking open the homegrown walnuts, but it does the job. There is actually a skill to open these nuts. You must hit these nuts with the right amount of strength. Too strong, the nuts will fly all over the place; too weak, the hard shells cannot be opened.
Crushing walnuts with a mortar and pestle.
Again, not the most modern way of crushing the walnuts. I could be using the kitchen robot grinder, but I was too lazy to fix it up.
Freshly baked muffins in a red silicone muffin tray.
Voila! The first tray of muffins. The recipe makes 12 of these muffins. The muffins look pretty.
A muffin cut open, revealing chunks of chocolate inside.
Cutting one of the piping hot muffins to try. The muffins are fluffy, but...Hélas! It's not sweet enough. Oh well, the main obvious reason is that I have not added a generous dollop of Nutella on each muffin, per the original recipe.
A bowl of muffins, one broken open to show the chocolate inside.
Our breakfast (mainly eaten by my number one fan - he does not have much choice :-))

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