A couple weeks ago, a muffin of epic proportions appeared in the office break room. The appearance of random baked goods in and of itself isn’t noteworthy—my law firm is large enough that there is a steady stream of catered client meetings, and the remains of fruit trays, pastry assortments, and boxes of cookies regularly make their way downstairs. But the sheer size of this muffin made it notable: it was coconut-sized, equivalent to at least three regular muffins. No one wanted to singlehandedly eat the entire monstrosity, but as the day went on, bits of it began to disappear. First half of the muffin was neatly carved off with a little plastic knife, then half of the remaining half, and so on. By 3:00, all that remained of Muffinzilla was a bite-sized piece. Part of me was curious to see if people would continue to divide the muffin into smaller and smaller pieces, until they were carefully separating mere crumbs. But the other part of me was hungry, so I spirited the muffin piece back to my office, feeling vaguely guilty for breaking some sort of muffin-dividing social contract. The momentary guilt was worth it: the muffin was light yet moist, with enough banana to make you feel like you were making a virtuous breakfast selection and enough chocolate to make your choice worthwhile.
I typically don’t do much breakfast baking—I’m a granola and milk kind of person—but I wanted to send some baked goods along with Mike for his Labor Day weekend trip to his cabin. Mike’s breakfast tastes skew towards the sweeter side (true story: he occasionally drizzles chocolate syrup on Cinnamon Toasters), so banana chocolate chip muffins were perfect. These muffins are on definitely on the sweet side, with lots of chocolate; if you're looking for a less dessert-like breakfast, you could halve the amount of chocolate chips. Make sure that you use very ripe, mushy bananas so that they mash easily, and tempting as it may be, don't overmix your batter--it should be lumpy.
Adapted from the Betty Crocker Cookbook, 10th edition
Yield: a baker's dozen (13 muffins)
Ingredients:
- 2 very ripe medium bananas (about 1 cup mashed)
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet miniature chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line muffin cups with paper liners.
Mash the bananas in a medium bowl. Add the milk, oil, and egg and stir until well-combined. Add the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt and mix just until dry ingredients are incorporated. Batter will be lumpy. Gently fold in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
Spoon the batter into the muffin cups until about 3/4 full.
Bake for 15 minutes or until muffins are golden brown. Remove from pan immediately and place on wire rack to cool.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature.