Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Last week, while throwing yet another couple of browned bananas into my freezer, I noticed that the pile of hardened torpedoes was about to take over my entire freezer. I resolved to finally do something with these poor neglected fruits that I had been hoarding. And so, to Google I went, to search for yet another banana muffin recipe. I had been unsatisfied with my previous staple recipes, and wanted something new and different. I also had some chocolate chips that I wanted to use, because, well... chocolate is great.

And so I stumbled upon this recipe. It had more ingredients than I was used to, and so I was slightly skeptical of it (simple = easy = hard to screw up). But then I read the reviews. All were five stars. All were raving. The words "bakery quality" hit my retinas and I was instantly convinced. A few slight tweaks later, and I was the proud new owner of a batch of the most delicious muffins I've ever baked. Yes, they're that good.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large bananas, thawed and mashed (squished with a fork works too)

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and wheat germ in a large bowl. Set aside. Mash the bananas in another bowl, and then add the rest of the wet ingredients, including the brown sugar with the wet ingredients (I even moved it down in the list so you wouldn't be tricked into thinking it goes into the dry bowl. Helpful hint!). Make sure it's all well-mixed, then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until all ingredients are ALMOST incorporated, then fold in the chocolate chips. It's really easy to over-mix muffin batter, and if you do it, you end up with rubber bouncy balls instead of muffins. Over-mixing activates the gluten in the flour, which makes it tough and gummy. So don't over-mix! Combine the ingredients with the fewest amount of strokes possible.

Scoop your muffin batter using a 1/4 cup measuring cup into paper liners or a greased muffin pan. If using silicone baking cups, you'll want to coat the insides with a bit of flour. Just put some on your fingers and run them around the sides and the bottoms. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If your muffins are bigger, you'll have to bake them for a bit longer. Just watch they don't get too brown on the outside. If you're using silicone baking cups, you'll want to take them out of the cups immediately after taking your muffins out, otherwise the bottoms will continue to bake even when they're sitting on the counter and "cooling." I learned this the hard way, after multiple batches of muffins came out perfect except for the bottoms, which were almost black and really tough. I realized that the baking cups stayed extremely hot for a while after baking, and presto! Now my muffins are perfect all the way through. Don't do what I did. Remove them toute-suite. I use a pair of chopsticks and an oven mitt, because those puppies are seriously steaming straight out of the oven! Remove with caution.

And there you have it. Lovely muffins that are delicious AND nutritious! I was surprised at how moist they were, and yet the texture was still firm and not too crumbly. I think it was the yogurt. What a lovely secret ingredient! They also weren't too cake-like, which I hate. If I want something sweet, I'll make a cupcake. I like my muffins to be muffins. I like to think that the wheat germ added a bit more nutrition and fiber, so let's just pretend that these are a health food. (Note: I said pretend, so don't sue me like this lady sued Nutella over its so-called "health-food" claims.) Health food with chocolate in it? I'll take it!

B. <3

Muffins and Stuffing

I dreamed I was taking some muffins out of an oven. Except it wasn't an oven, it was the second-floor window on the side of a house. I was reaching up way higher than I should have been physically able to, and a muffin pan with 4 giant muffins in it were toppling down onto me in slow motion. I'm pretty sure they were cranberry muffins.

So now I had these muffins all around me on the ground, taller than I was, and I remember throwing them far, far away to a house that was across the street. In it was my best friend, and I was like "Hey, have some muffins!" I lobbed them through the air and they floated slowly over to her. In return she lobbed back a giant Hello Kitty-shaped pillow, which had a weird X shape sown into it with the hands and feet at each end. I remember bouncing on it and having so much fun. It was like a cottony bouncy castle; all the bounce with none of the weird plastic smell and possible bacterial contamination.

And then for some reason I was chewing on a teddy bear, trying to eat it. It was so good. I tore off his foot and chewed on it, watching as stuffing flew out in ribbons, floating away on the breeze. Again, all in slow motion.

And then my alarm went off and I very slowly woke up. Yay for being abruptly woken up during REM sleep!