Cocoa Banana Muffins

We always seems to have extra bananas around the house that are past their prime - the only good use for them is in baked goods. Those of you who know me know I hate bananas, so the more I can do to disguise them, the better. I stumbled on a recipe for cocoa banana hazelnut muffins, and with quite a lot of tweaking I managed to come up with a variation using ingredients I already had in the house. These turned out amazingly well - there is still a faint hint of banana in there, but the cocoa makes it chocolatey enough that I don't mind. They're also only slightly sweet, so you could eat one for breakfast without feeling too strange. Plus, they're no more unhealthy than normal banana muffins - cocoa powder is fat free and sugar free!

Cocoa Banana Muffins
Inspired by La Tartine Gourmande

Ingredients:

Heaping cup of plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
90 g salted butter, melted (or use unsalted and then put a pinch of salt in the mix)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 350 F/200C.
In a bowl, combine the flours with the baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt; set aside.
In another bowl, mix melted butter with bananas, egg, vanilla and sugar.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Spoon into a muffin tin (you can line with paper cases, or use a non-stick tin like I did). Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool on a rack.