These vegan pecan banoffee muffins include a simple homemade dulce de leche for a gooey caramel centre and a richer flavour than you can achieve with vanilla, salt and sugar alone.
Dulce de leche is milk and sugar gently boiled until the mixture reduces to a thick, syrupy custard consistency. Although it takes a while, it’s very easy to make, and you can always make a bit extra to save for ice cream and pancakes.
I’ve included the picture above to show the right sort of consistency. It thickens further still when it cools.
I have used both oat milk and almond milk to make the dulche de leche and both worked. Choose a plant milk which has a flavour you like, as the flavour will intensify as it reduces. It’s also essential to add a bit of salt and plenty of vanilla for a caramel flavour that will still be distinctive in the finished muffin.
If you’re not careful to close the muffin mixture around it when filling the cases, the sauce has a tendency to ooze out of the sides (see picture below), but the centre will still be gooey.
Healthwise, pecans often seem to be in the shadow of the celebrated walnut, but they bring many of the same health benefits (eaten in small quantities) and slightly higher levels of vitamin E and dietary fibre.
pecan banoffee muffins…
ingredients
dulce de leche
- 700 ml oat, almond or other non-dairy milk
- 140 g light brown sugar
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
muffins
- 300 g ripe bananas (3 small to medium bananas)
- 200 g dulce de leche
- 90 ml light olive (or other mild tasting) oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 50 g light muscovado sugar
- 280 g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- scant 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 140 g pecans
method
- Prepare the dulce de leche in advance to allow it to cool and thicken. Add the milk and sugar to a pan. Bring to the boil, stirring, and gently boil until it reduces to a thick syrupy custard consistency. This may take an hour. (Some recipes say this process takes five hours, but that must be on a very low heat.) It will depend on the pan and your stove. Don’t leave it alone for more than a few minutes, and check and stir intermittently.
- Once it has reduced to the right sort of consistency (see photo above), allow it to cool a little before stirring through the vanilla and salt. This recipe should produce around 200g of the finished sauce, but it won’t matter if you have a bit more or less. Set aside half of the mixture in the fridge and spoon the other half into a large mixing bowl.
- Set the oven to 190°C/375°F and line a twelve muffin tin with cases.
- Mash the bananas and add these to the dulce de leche along with the oil, vanilla and sugar. Whisk to combine thoroughly.
- Reserve 12 pecan halves and chop the remainder fairly small. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a separate bowl and then add to the liquid mixture along with the chopped pecans. Stir lightly until everything is well combined, but don’t over stir.
- Using two dessert spoons, fill each of the muffin cases around a third full and make a dip (using a teaspoon) in the centre of each. Place a teaspoonful of the reserved, chilled dulce de leche in the centre. Use the remaining muffin mixture to fill each of the cases most of the way to the top. Ideally, the caramel filling should be enclosed in the muffin to avoid it bubbling out of the sides during baking, but this is easier said than done.
- Very lightly press a half pecan into the top of each muffin before baking for around 20 minutes.
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