Sugar Free Banana and Mango Muffins

As the Monkey is just as fond of cakes as her mother, (I actually found her leafing though "How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson today - pointing at the photos and saying "Yum Yum") I'm always looking for ways to make recipes healthier without sacrificing too much taste. I generally just cut the sugar amount in half and I never miss that extra sweetness. Today I found myself with a load of overripe bananas and an overripe mango so after the Monkey went to bed I set to some quick baking. I decided to turn them into muffins and try leaving out the sugar altogether in my usual recipe. The results were a huge success - you wouldn't satisfy a sweet tooth with them but they were sweet enough for my taste and the fruit kept them very moist which tends to bode well for freezing - their final destination. My concern was that they might not rise very well with all the fruit but it didn't seem to be a problem.

Just so you know these are what I call "proper" muffins less sweet and cake like than the so-called muffins they sell in the supermarket.

This recipe started out life as the Banana and Butterscotch Muffins in Nigella Express http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=155 - the most fabulously easy muffin recipe although I've never found the butterscotch morsels so substitute with chocolate chips or raisins.

Ingredients

Very Ripe Bananas (3 large, 4 medium or 5 small - I used 5 little organic ones)

1 Very Ripe Medium Sized Mango - finely chopped but leaving a few larger chunks - I scrape off the skin so you end up with a bit of puree in there too.

2 Eggs

125ml vegetable or other light oil - I used rice bran oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

280g Plain Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1: Preheat oven to 200 degrees and line a 12 bun muffin tin with muffin cases (I used my little silicon cases as I find better to freeze cakes without paper cases as they go soggy in the defrosting process)

2: Mix the eggs, oil and vanilla in a bowl

3: Mix the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in another bowl

4: Tip the egg mix into the dry ingredients and mix through

5: I then re-use the egg bowl to mash up the bananas (to save on washing up!) and add to the muffin mixture and mix through

6: Lastly mix in the mango

7: Spoon into your muffin cases and bake for about 20 mins