Banana Misu Banana Muffins with Mascarpone Filling
DIFFICULTY: Medium
PREP TIME: 45 minutes / COOK TIME: 25 minutes
Ingredients
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Ingredients ✴
Banana Chocolate Muffins:
2 large ripe bananas, peeled
½ cup sunflower or rice bran oil
½ cup caster sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
1 ¼ cups self-rising flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp table salt
250g good-quality milk chocolate, roughly chopped
6 tsp raw or demerara sugar
Mascarpone Filling & Espresso:
1 large egg yolk
2 Tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
250g mascarpone cheese
2x double shots espresso (about 60 ml total) *see tip
1 Tbsp butterscotch liqueur or kahlua (optional)
2 tsp cocoa powder, for dusting
Pinch of flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Directions
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Directions ✴
Preheat your oven to 180°C bake. Line a 6-hole Texas-sized muffin tin with paper liners.
Banana Chocolate Muffins: Add the bananas to a large mixing bowl. Using a masher, mash the bananas well until no large chunks remain. Add the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla and whisk together, until combined. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and whisk again, until the mixture is combined and smooth. Fold roughly three quarters of the chopped chocolate through the batter.
Divide the batter evenly between the muffin tins and arrange the remaining chopped chocolate on top. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with 1 tsp of the raw sugar. Bake on the lower-middle oven rack for 20-25 minutes, until golden and the muffins spring back to the touch. Set aside to cool down slightly in the tin.
Meanwhile, make the filling: Add the egg yolk, sugar and vanilla to a small mixing bowl. Using an electric whisk or handheld beater, whip together until the mixture is pale and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the mascarpone and a pinch of salt. Beat again for about 30 seconds, until it is fluffy and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag (or simply use a snap-lock bag) and snip a small hole at the tip, roughly 5mm wide. Combine the espresso and liqueur together in a small jug and set aside.
Assembly: Assemble the muffins while they are still warm out of the oven. Insert a small, sharp knife into the centre of the muffin (be careful not to poke a hole in the bottom through the paper liner). Pour about 2 tsp of the coffee mixture into the hole. Then, insert the piping bag into the hole and pipe in some of the mascarpone cream, until it just starts to ooze out of the top. Pipe a little dollop of the mascarpone cream on top. Dust over the cocoa powder.
Serve warm. Makes 6 muffins.