Today more than ever I am in need of my Monday morning muffin.  It was a three day weekend (happy birthday, Buddha!), so it is with a heavy heart that I trudge back to work this morning.

It was an odd sort of weekend, in which wherever I went – for a run in the park, a gentle hike, a stroll around Central, a 2 minute trot to the laundrette – I returned with hideous sweat patches, a shiny red face and hair that was simultaneously damply stuck to my head and frizzing uncontrollably into a big bush.  Heat and humidity are not my friends.  But muffins are!  These are sweet and delicious, and if you eat them warm they give you a comforting glow in your belly.  I’m ready to face a full week at work, and whatever ridiculous weather Hong Kong throws at me.

Banana Breakfast Muffins

Makes 18-20, from Short & Sweet by Dan Lepard

Ingredients:

250ml boiling water

125g bran

3 ripe bananas, mashed

200g muscovado sugar

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

125g butter, melted

2 tsp vanilla extract

200g Greek yoghurt

300g raisins

325g plain flour

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1.5 tsp baking powder

Method:

1.  Pour the boiling water over the bran and leave to soak for 15 minutes.

2.  Preheat the oven to 200C and line a muffin tin with paper cases.

3.  Put the banana, two sugars and one egg in a bowl and beat together.

4.  Beat in the other egg, closely followed by the melted butter, vanilla and yoghurt.  Beat until smooth.

5.  Tip in the raisins, and sift in the flour, spice and bicarb.  Mix well.

6.  Spoon the batter into the prepared paper cases.

7.  Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.

8.  Let them stand in the tin for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely – or until eating temperature, at least!