Banana, Walnut & Coffee Muffins

I remember getting a totally delicious coffee, date and walnut loaf from my local bakery when I was in primary school. I found out about it because one of the girls in my group used to have it with butter and it smelt SO good, so I asked my mum if we could get one. Not too long after, the bakery stopped making the loaf because it wasn't very popular. Who knows why. It was 'heaven' with a capital 'H'.

So I thought I'd try and make a similar flavour muffin with some whipped cream cheese on top instead of butter to take a walk down memory lane. I had no dates and decided to use bananas in the muffin batter because I love the flavour. That paired with a light and creamy dollop of cream cheese and a good drizzle of coffee icing, I'm experiencing 'heaven' with a capital 'H' all over again.

Ingredients

3 cups plain flour

6 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup brown/rapadura/muscavado sugar

2 bananas, mashed

1 and 1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 egg

1 tbs instant coffee

3/4 cups walnuts

300g block of cream cheese

1/3 cup milk

1 cup icing sugar

2-4 tbs espresso coffee

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, fan-forced.

Combine bananas, 1 and 1/4 cup milk, egg, oil, instant coffee and sugar in a bowl with a whisk until well mixed.

Add walnuts, salt, baking powder and flour and combine again with a metal spoon until just mixed.

Spoon batter into a lined muffin pan, filling each muffin hole to the top. This is so you get a good muffin top once it's baked :)

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

While this is baking. Beat together cream cheese and 1/3 milk until smooth, adding extra milk if needed so the cheese is soft and light. Set aside.

In another bowl, combine espresso and icing sugar, adding more or less espresso to reach a drizzle consistency you like.

Once muffins are cooked. Cool completely on a cooling rack then top with a dollop of cream cheese and a good drizzle of coffee icing. Serve.

*You can also combine the cream cheese and coffee icing together to make a frosting if you prefer.