Green Tea Banana & Granola Cupcakes

A lot of times, I tweak a recipe to utilise  certain ingredients I have in my pantry. I don't like wasting food, so I always watch out for stuff that needs to be used before they expire. Last weekend, I whipped up a batch of cupcakes from some soon to be unwanted ingredients from my pantry. The cupcakes are made from mashed, overripe bananas (the best for any kind of banana cakes or cupcakes!), breakfast granola, soy milk (a leftover when my husband made tofu; that's another recipe altogether), green tea powder and some chocolates a friend gave us for Christmas. So I made this:

Plus I wanted to use these very cute, girly Hello Kitty silicon cupcake holders which I bought at a recent vacation at Bangkok.

Sooooo cute, right? :)

GREEN TEA BANANA & GRANOLA CUPCAKES
Makes 12

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole grain flour
1 cup granola (I used maple flavoured granola, chopped into small bits)
Overripe, mashed bananas, about 1 cup
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon green tea powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup soy milk (or regular milk, if you prefer)
Chocolates, for topping. (In this case, I had some chocolate covered nuts that I wanted to finish, so I used 2 per cupcake, one in the middle and one on top of each one)

PROCEDURE:

1. Mash the bananas. It doesn't have to be uniformly smooth; it's ok to have some bigger bits. Add the cinnamon and oil. Mix well.

Mash the bananas; no need to make it very smooth.

2.  Sift the flours, baking soda, salt and green tea powder in another bowl.

It's a beautiful mix. And so fragrant too, because of the green tea powder.

I used this brand of green tea powder, especially for baking.

3.  Cream the butter and add the brown sugar, little by little until it's creamy and smooth. Add the egg and continue to mix.

4.  Add the bananas to the batter; mix well. Alternately add the flour and the milk, until fully mixed. By now, the batter should be very smooth.

5.  Fold 3/4 cup of the granola into the batter. Reserve the rest for topping.

I used this brand of granola. It remained crunchy, even after being mixed with the batter and baked.

The granola will give it a good crunch, even after baking.

6.  Ladle the mix into the silicone cupcake holders but fill it only halfway. Put a chocolate covered nut (or just any chocolate you prefer) in the middle of each cupcake.

7.  Put more batter on top, up to the rim of the cupcake holder. Top with the extra granola and one more chocolate covered nut. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for about 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Enjoy your pretty cupcakes!