Baking with Blobby

If I cooked and baked more, I could just turn this into a food blog. I just don't have that much inclination. And baking is something I rarely do, though there seems to be an uptick of it in the last two years. 

We usually have a number of bananas we put in the fridge that have over ripened.

Every now and again, I pull them out to make banana bread, but as you've seen here in previous recipe(s), I'm not a huge fan, but I'm learning to appreciate it all.

But I saw a recipe for Chocolate Banana Muffins and went "hmmmm....."

I mean, I can get behind that, and worse case, it only makes 12. I can alway give them away should no one in the house not like them.  

Truth be told, prep times is super simple, like 5 minutes (even though it looks like a lot of ingredients) and takes little time start to finish.

Ingredients 

Yield: 12 muffins 

1½ cups/192 grams all-purpose flour 

½ cup/47 grams Dutch-processed cocoa powder 

¾ teaspoon baking powder 

½ teaspoon baking soda 

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 

¾ teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) 

½ packed cup/110 grams dark brown sugar 

½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar   (full disclosure: It's not pictured in the blog image - ooops)

2 large eggs 

½ cup grapeseed or vegetable oil 

3 very ripe medium bananas, mashed (about 1½ cups) 

¼ cup sour cream 

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 

⅓ cup/58 grams semisweet chocolate chips 

Preparation 

Step 1 Heat oven to 450 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners  (NOTE: before putting batter in oven DECREASE the temp to 350 !!!)

Step 2 In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 

Step 3 In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, oil, bananas, sour cream and vanilla extract. 

Step 4 Then add the dry ingredients and chocolate chips and, using a flexible spatula, fold them into the wet ingredients by gently scooping some of the mixture from the bottom and folding it over the dry ingredients on top. Rotate the bowl and repeat until no streaks are visible. Do not overmix. 

Step 5 Divide the batter evenly among the liners. Adjust the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes. (Make sure you’ve got moist crumbs instead of melted chocolate on the toothpick.) 

Let muffins cool slightly in the pan then transfer to a rack to cool completely. 

Step 6 Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days or store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to one month. To reheat, wrap frozen muffins in foil and bake at 350 degrees until warm, about 10 minutes.

710 liked them a lot. Thought they were very moist (the next day). My sister-in-law tried one too, which is kind of huge praise, even if she might not like it - though she did. Her adjective was "rich". 

I didn't have one until day 3. They were still moist - and I swear most of the sweetness came from the ripened banana more than the sugars and chocolate. The cinnamon flavour crept in there ever so slightly. 

I liked them enough to use - eventually - or other frozen bananas into these instead of bread. At least for a while.