Chocolate Banana Muffins

These muffins are one of my husband’s favorites! And they remind me of when I was a little kid and my mom used to take me to The Muffin Break at the mall to get warmed double chocolate muffins with melted butter! I’ve adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen’s Double Chocolate Banana bread recipe. For easy serving, I bake in muffin tins instead of a cake pan, plus I double the cocoa powder, double the chocolate chips, use canola oil instead of butter. I like to keep some of these in the freezer, and my husband has been known to eat them still frozen!

Ingredients:

• 3 medium-to-large very ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 extra large egg or 2 small eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips (I use an entire bag of Ghirardelli Bittersweet 60% Cacao Baking Chips)

Instructions:

1. Heat your oven to 350°F. If you would like to make this into bread instead of muffins, butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Otherwise, prep muffin tin with cupcake liners. This recipe should make approximately 1 dozen muffins.
2. Mash bananas in the bottom of a large bowl. Whisk in oil, brown sugar, egg(s), and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder to banana mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks or chips.
3. Scoop into prepared muffin tin, or loaf pan. Bake muffins for approximately 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. If baking in a bread pan, bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool in tins or pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then, for bread, run a knife around the edge and invert it out onto a cooling rack. Simply lift muffins out onto cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
4. These muffins will keep for 4 days at room temperature, and freeze quite well for easy snacking later on! Just warm to room temperature, or heat slightly, and serve!