Banana-Choco Muffins

By Crivenica

I was chatting with my sister, Lu, the other day and it made me think about sharing a little habit that David and I have.

Lu: So what are you doing?
Me: Oh, just cleaned up my freezer to make room for mom’s challah bread David brought from Jakarta. And I found these frozen bananas, so I think I’ll make some banana muffins today.
Lu: Frozen bananas? Why would you freeze bananas?
Me: They’re old bananas that we didn’t get to eat so instead of dumping them in the trash, David and I just throw them into the freezer until we feel like doing something with them.
Lu: Oh. I've never thought to freeze bananas.

It really is a simple habit that came out from not wanting to waste food. If Lu never thought to do that, I thought maybe many people didn’t think to do that, either. It’s a great way to keep an ingredient handy for a loaf of banana bread or in my case that day, Banana-Choco Muffins. All you have to do is to let the banana thaw and you can be munching on fresh-baked goods in a couple of hours.

Here’s a simple Banana-Choco Muffins recipe which I have modified from Better Homes And Gardens New Cook Book's Banana Bread recipe:

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cups mashed medium bananas
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil

2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel or vanilla extract (optional)
1 1/2 cups chopped semi-sweet chocolate or chocolate chips

Grease the bottom and sides of a muffin pan or muffin tins. You can also use individual muffin baking paper liners. Set aside. Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and add 1/4 tsp of salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Set aside.

In another bowl combined the wet ingredients and if you’d like add the lemon peel or vanilla extract. I usually use vanilla and there are times when I use both. I love smelling the fragrance as the muffins bake. Add the wet ingredient mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. Don’t over stir, the batter should be lumpy. Fold in the chopped chocolate. Some people also add 1/2-3/4 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans, but I’d like to focus on the banana and chocolate this time.

L: Mixed wet ingredients R: Mixed dry ingredients

Mixed batter - Fold in the chocolate

Spoon batter into the prepared pans. Bake in a 350º F/180º C/ oven gas knob 3 for 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then you can remove the individual muffins from pan and cool on rack. Make 16 medium size muffins.






Enjoy!