banana chocolate chip muffins

These muffins are perfect - soft and fluffy and full of chocolate chips. They are really more like little cakes than muffins, but there's fruit in there (bananas!) so they've got to be healthy, right?

Right?

Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but these aren't exactly the healthiest of muffins. Which means that they taste amazing. I wouldn't eat a bunch every day, but they are a delicious treat to have around. I keep mine in the freezer, which keeps the impulse snacking to a minimum.

I always thought I didn't like the classic banana-chocolate combo, but I think it's because I'd always had banana bread with lots of spices and chocolate chips, all crammed in together. Then one day someone made me a mini loaf of banana bread that had chocolate chips but no spices. It was heavenly.

Now I know that what I really don't like is the combination of bananas, chocolate chips, and stuff like cinnamon. (Don't get me wrong - I love cinnamon! Just not here...)

So I took this recipe from the King Arthur cookbook, tweaked it to my liking, and voila! A simple, delicious banana chocolate chip muffin. So go ahead and gather up those black bananas just waiting to be used...

banana chocolate chip muffins
adapted from the King Arther Baker's Companion

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a medium bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Scrape down and add egg, banana and milk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine dry ingredients with wet, being careful not to overmix. Add chocolate chips and stir to combine. (I add the chocolate chips before the dry ingredients are fully incorporated to make sure I don't overmix the batter.)

Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or use paper liners. Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin cups - the batter is fairly stiff.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven, let cool for 10 minutes and take them out of the pan to finish cooling.

These are delicious fresh, straight from the oven, but they also keep quite well! My frozen ones last a good while and still taste as delicious as the moment they went in. Enjoy!

Comments

[Jesse]

Yum! I had such good luck with this recipe I'm now adapting it for blueberries with a brown sugar oatmeal topping -- thanks for the baking inspiration!