Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, A La Mamma Mohs

I usually don't blog about baking, but I do love to bake. I don't get to do it often because I'm such a busy Indie, but I like to make time for baking during the holidays because it seems to enrich my family life to do so. My kids love me for it and my husband gets all warm and fuzzy when the house smells like cake. Since the holidays are upon us, I decided I should get in the mood. But what to bake first? My question was answered when I saw this post from Kayla Fioravanti over at Essential U Blog. (Kayla is also a member of IBN, and her company, Essential Wholesale, is a sponsor of my work.) The recipe is easy and fun to make. And the muffins are smack daddy good. Here's how one of the big fat ones turned out.

I got the idea to add chocolate chips because my neighbor works at a local Indie coffee house that serves muffins with chocolate chips in them. I suppose they are really more like cake-y desserts than morning breakfast snacks. On the other hand, there are all those fresh bananas in there, with all that potassium. I'm sure the heat of baking doesn't kill it off. (If it does, I'll thank you not to comment about that please!)

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, A La Mamma Mohs

Dry Ingredients

2 cups of flour
1 pinch of salt
1 cup sugar

Wet Ingredients

2 eggs, room temperature
½ cup softened butter
4 over-ripe bananas

Sour Milk

3 teaspoons milk, room temperature
½ teaspoon vinegar
½ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla (this is my addition)

Optional (well, some might call it optional …)

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Prepare and Preheat. Preheat oven to 350 °F and lightly grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan OR use muffin trays. I used large and small muffin tins so I could have a variety of sizes to share. If you need to, now is the time to grease and flour the muffin tins. I used Baker's Joy for the large tins. For the smaller muffins, I used silicone baking cups. The muffins slide right out and you can use them over and over again.

   

2. Mix Dry Ingredients. Mix together flour, sugar and salt and set aside.

   

3. Mix Wet Ingredients. In a separate bowl mix together eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla and over-ripe bananas. Mix it up in the mixer until it is well blended. It will look lumpy and weird. Don't let this bother you. Remember, they are over ripe bananas after all. Set it aside, lumps and all.

   

4. Mix Sour Milk. In a separate bowl, mix up the vinegar, milk, baking soda and sugar. This mixture will fizz a bit. (See the bubbles?) Stir to make sure the baking soda is fully dissolved.

   

5. Special Ingredient Alert! I added this special and very awesome vanilla extract imported from Mexico. I use this Molino Real brand. (It contains no coumarin.)

   

6. Add Dry Ingredients To Wet Ingredients. While mixing, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. I didn't really do this gradually.

   

7. Add Sour Milk. So, do that, while everything is mixing.

   

8. Add Chocolate Chips. Do that, and eat a few because they will fall out of the measuring cup. Ooops!

   

9. Spoon Batter Into Tins. It smells very banana-y.

   

10. Put In The Oven. In they go!

    

11. Call The Maid! You shouldn't have to clean up yourself after all of that hard work and mixing.

    

12. Bake For 20 Minutes Or So.

    Well, it took the small muffins about 20 minutes and the large ones about 25 minutes to bake. Test for doneness (is that a word?) using a fork or tooth pick. When they're done, take them out and behold the beauty of it all.

13. Look at the Cute Little Muffins.I made 11 little ones like this.

    

14. Look at the Big One! I made six big ones like this.

    

Hmmm, which one should we try first? You can add butter. Kayla says they are good with cream cheese. I like them straight up, no chaser. By the way, Kayla and I will be hosting a meetup at Bay 13 Restaurant in Portland next Saturday night. You should join us if you're in the area. Learn more here.

Question: What are some of your favorite holiday baked goods?