Banana And Chocolate Chunk Muffins

my earliest memory of bananas is from the time when i was very young: my grandfather would cut and hand out pieces of the fruit to everyone after dinner. it was a daily ritual and every time i would refuse, claiming that i didn’t like the taste (yep, i was a fussy kid!) looking back at the memory brings a smile to my face, because bananas now figure regularly in my diet – for breakfast or a snack. and if there are better ways to enjoy it, why not?

the idea of banana-chocolate chip muffins came from my friend – it sounded really yummy, so i caught on and started scouting for a recipe. along the way, i told my mum about it and she emailed me a recipe that she’s used. recipe in hand, i set out to make the muffins. i didn’t have chocolate chips, so decided to cut up a chocolate bar and use chunks instead. cool. but there was another thing – the recipe calls for very ripe bananas, which i didn’t have. moreover, store-bought bananas are often less than ripe to increase their shelf-life. taking a chance, i popped into a shop near my place and asked the lady if she had ripe bananas. while she was looking, i found a bunch behind some other fruits – and they were really ripe! even better, she gave them to me for a really low price as she didn’t want to hold on to them. talk about lucky coincidences! 🙂

the muffins turned out very moist and flavourful, but i felt that the chocolate made them too sweet – you could try using semi-sweet or dark chocolate to balance the sweetness; or of course, if you like the sugar rush feel free to use milk chocolate! also, i felt like i was biting into a cake rather than a muffin [i mean, arent muffins supposed to be in between bread and cake – with like crispier tops and not-so-moist texture?] but that aside, these little goodies are perfect for a breakfast treat or snack. and if you have fussy kids who don’t like bananas, this is one way to get them to change their mind 🙂

*Photography by Saraswathi Raja Krishnan

Ingredients:

1 cup All-purpose/plain flour
50 gms Butter
1/2 cup Mixed brown and white sugar (*you can use all brown and white sugar as well)
2 Ripe, medium-sized bananas
1/2 cup Chocolate chunks (semi-sweet or milk chocolate)
1/2 cup Chopped walnuts/dry fruits (optional)
1/4 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
(*the original recipe includes 1/2 tsp cardamom powder, but i omitted that)

Making the Muffins:

Preheat the oven to 180 dec C. Sieve the flour, baking soda and baking powder and keep aside. Mash the bananas well, add in the butter, sugar and vanilla extract and cream it all together. Fold in the chocolate chunks or walnuts (if using), followed by the flour mixture. Add in the milk even as you are mixing to make the mixture less thick, but don’t make it watery – the batter is meant to be thick and gooey. Grease a muffin tin or line with paper liners and fill it upto two-thirds (or even a bit more) of the cups. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. (I found that keeping the muffin tin in the lower rack of the oven rather than in the middle worked better, as it helped the muffins to cook evenly.) Take out and let the the muffins sit in the tins for about two to three minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool. make some coffee or tea while it cools. when it’s ready, sit back and indulge 🙂

Tags: banana, bananas, cake, chocolate chunks, muffin, muffins