Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

So for my first entry, I wanted to start with something pretty safe. Nothing too crazy or adventurous, and I definitely didn't want to try anything I could fail at. So upon doing an inventory of the kitchen, I realized I have a whole bunch of frozen ripe bananas. I've tried to make banana bread before, and it's always been missing something. Either too sweet, or it didn't rise all the way, or I didn't cook it long enough and it's a bit underdone. So I turned to my favorite recipe source, foodgawker, to try to find a recipe that I wanted to make.
I found this delicious looking recipe by a blog entitled "Dad can Cook". Mini chocolate chip muffins? Yes please!

I followed the recipe pretty darn closely- I added a little more cinnamon and one more banana, because I can. But other than that, it's pretty spot on




So here we go- the first recipe post of this blog!

The bananas were very frozen. QUITE frozen. So I took them out of the freezer, and went to town. A tip for anyone going to make these: take them out of the freezer the night before, and let them defrost in the fridge overnight. I zapped them for a few seconds in the microwave, which worked well as long as I monitored the power level on the microwave.



By the time I finished peeling these 3 bananas my hands were very cold. So I took a break and got out all of my ingredients. For this recipe you'll need flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, butter, 2 eggs, vanilla, and of course chocolate chips. Ignore the oil and salt in the pictures, I had gotten out the ingredients before deciding on a recipe.



Combine the dry ingredients together in a bowl. I'm not usually one to use separate bowls, but for you guys I did! :)



Then in another bowl combine the sugar with the softened butter.



Mix until combined. By spoon, a few minutes- took me about 5. If you use a mixer, 3-5 minutes.



Add the eggs one at a time, stirring until combined.



Then add the vanilla.



Add the dry bowl of ingredients to the wet ingredients. Yum.



Add the mashed bananas and stir





Add the chocolate chips and eat some, because I totally did.



I always leave a gigantic mess when I cook, which Heidi can attest to. I took photographic evidence this time. Sorry, babe.



I cleaned up and played with my cute puppy. If you have one, I'd strongly suggest you play with him too.




Then put the batter in mini muffin pans. Fill about halfway, or they'll overflow. And then put them in the oven at 350 degrees. Bake them for about 14 minutes.



And when they come out... they'll look like this.




And then I ate one....




All in all, I'd say this was pretty much a successful venture. They were delicious straight out of the oven- warm and chocolatey and the perfect texture. After they cooled down they were still pretty good, but the banana gave them a little bit of grease. If I were to make it again, I'd probably use 2.5 bananas, not 3.

Here's the recipe written out simply, without the pictures :) For those of you who like to just read it.

Ingredients

½ cup butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (i used probably 1.5)
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
2 medium bananas, mashed. About 1 ¼ cups (i used 3!)
1 cup chocolate chips plus reserve extra chips to top the muffins with


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Directions

Spray the cups of a 24 count mini muffin pan.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
In a mixer, on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar until smooth. About 3-5 minutes.
Mix in eggs one at a time, until well incorporated.
Stir in vanilla.
On low, slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
Stir in the mashed banana.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Spoon the batter into the muffin cups till about ¾ full.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the tops are light brown and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. (I only needed 14 minutes)

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Enjoy! Tell me how they worked for you if you make them!!!