Nut Your Chipical Banana Muffin

I can hear you grumbling already. “I know my banana muffins,” you say. “There’s absolutely nothing special about a banana muffin. Banana muffins are the ones that you find sitting untouched amid blueberry and lemon poppyseed crumbs when you arrive late for your motel’s continental breakfast. Nobody really wants banana muffins.”

WRONG!

Oh, dear muffin grumbler, you haven’t had these banana muffins. These are not garden-variety, bring-to-your-in-laws-after-a-panicked-last-minute-stop-at-the-grocery-store-because-you-can’t-arrive-empty-handed muffins. These are banana walnut chocolate chip muffins. You heard me right. Banana walnut chocolate chip. Moist on the inside with crunchy surprises, gooey pockets of melted chocolate, and sparkling sugar crystal tops, these are the kind of muffins you eat three and four at a time, sputtering crumbs as you insist to horrified onlookers, “But it’s okay… they’re healthy. They’re banana.”

 Nut Your Chipical Banana Muffin  ((It has been scientifically proven that recipes are always better with a pun.))

INGREDIENTS: ((Adapted from this recipe.))

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 medium-sized overripe bananas
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips
• sugar crystals for the tops

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly butter your muffin tin(s) or line with paper cups.

In one bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In a second, smaller bowl, mash two of the bananas with a fork until mushy, but still lumpy. Set both bowls aside.

In a third bowl, combine the remaining bananas and sugar, then whip with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes. ((You can do this by hand, though it’ll take a bit longer.)) Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla, then continue to beat until reasonably smooth.

Dump in the dry ingredients and mix until blended. Gently fold in the nuts, hand-mashed banana, ((It’s still sitting over in the corner, right?)) and chocolate chips.

Fill each muffin tin about two-thirds of the way with batter. The original recipe suggests rapping the filled muffin tin on your counter to eliminate air pockets. Do it if you think it’ll be fun.

Shove your future muffins into the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick ((Or fork, for the more environmentally conscious chefs out there, or those living in a country where toothpicks are hard to come by.)) comes out clean. They will be very moist on the inside and light to medium golden brown on the tops. Don’t forget to sprinkle sugar crystals across the top!

Apparently you’re supposed to let these cool for a few minutes, but sometimes molten chocolate is worth roof-of-the-mouth burns. You decide.

Here is one batch baked with a convection oven… ((More photos on Flickr.))

And a second batch without. They were equally tasty. ((If crusty muffin tops are your thing, bake with a fan or at a higher temperature for a shorter length of time. If you prefer perfectly rounded muffin tops, bake without fan for the original time. I was going to make a joke about skipping the gym and eating fatty foods to achieve an impressive muffin top, but I just couldn’t pull it off.))

Makes 18 small muffins or 12 large ones, which will take you approximately four minutes to devour.